Merlot is often vegetal and pruney for our tastes, but this terrific version from Sonoma County reminds you of how good merlot can be. Loaded with rich fresh cherry and plum flavors, it has good character and balance. Very aromatic with black cherry and herbal notes. For what you get, it's a good price.

Cambria Winery is located on the Santa Maria bench in California’s Santa Barbara County. This cool coastal growing area is excellent for the production of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This Benchbreak Pinot Noir is a combination of different clones and vine ages, yielding a rich, dark wine with ripe berry and earthy mineral flavors – a great complement to salmon from the grill.

One of the stars of our recent regional tasting. Serious, brooding bouquet of red and black berries, briar, clove and cinnamon wood as subtle backdrop, bitter dark chocolate, just a whiff of Aussie bush character. Beauty. Medium weight, glides gloriously and evenly across the palate, a quiet lake of dark fruit, spice, wood, swirls of graphite-like tannins. It’s superb. Shuts you up.

Smells like red cherries, molten milk chocolate, cinnamon, Ripe Raspberries. Juicy and kind of sweet to taste but fits the bill well, shows a decent spread of fine tannin, finishes juicy and fresh. Simple done well. It’s easy drinking season.

Swampy perfume runs with mangrove, wet herbs, decaying fruit character, Chinese five spice. Palate is rich with dark fruit character, peppery spice, finishes short and with bitter coffee ground tannins. Big glob-full of rich wine, but bit disappointing in finish.

2012 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (75.5 percent cabernet sauvignon, 16.6 percent merlot, 3.3 percent cabernet franc, 2.6 percent petit verdot, 2 percent malbec): hint of oak, aromas and opulent flavors of black plums, bittersweet chocolate and spice, long, smooth finish.

2012 Matanzas Creek Winery Merlot, Sonoma County (97.7 percent merlot, 2.3 percent cabernet sauvignon): aromas and flavors of red raspberries, mocha and herbs, smooth tannins, long finish.

2013 Avant Red Blend by Kendall-Jackson, Calif. (50 percent merlot, 22 percent syrah, 9 percent cabernet sauvignon, 9 percent malbec, 7 percent petite sirah, 3 percent carignan and others): soft and smooth, with aromas and flavors of red raspberries and milk chocolate.

This was my top wine from our recent regional McLaren Vale tasting. Tasted nearly 100 wines over one and a half days, blind. This one leapt out. Peppery, bunchy, spicy, raspberry, perfumed. Light to medium bodied, spicy and frisky, cool acidity, dry chalky mineral tannin, savoury and long. Great wine

Fragrant, spicy, earthy, blackberries. Medium to full bodied, crisp, floral and earthy at once, grainy tannin, fresh and long to close. Super expression of Mataro. Spot on.

Blackberry, some mint and tobacco perfume, almost capsicum, fine spicy coffee oak. Medium bodied, mixed berry, fresh acidity, gentle thread of dried herb gives amaro like flavour, fleshy grainy tannin and a pretty good long finish. Certainly it’s Cabernet here, and high quality.

Savoury, spicy, earthy, pear drops, sausage, raspberry and cherry. Light to medium bodied, spicy and earthy, Pinot like, controlling grip of tannin, alpine herbs on a long finish. Complex. 93 or 94 points.

Plum, red fruits, gamey, tobacco, cedar and vanilla oak. Medium bodied, strawberry and plum, savoury, grainy graphite tannin, cool acidity, tomato paste flavour on the finish.

A delicious, flavor-packed pinot noir with strawberry, blueberry and black cherry flavors in an elegant creamy oak frame. Mouth filling with a very nice long finish.

Grown on a block planted in 1971. That’s when Walsh was a bub; which means these vines are very, very old. 1940 cases were made. It sees 15 months in French oak (Burgundy coopered). You can see people clambering for this. It’s soft and luscious but with a firm backbone of tannin; it lays on the fruit, covers it in velvet, then pulls the ropes taut. A this-is-how-it’s-done kind of wine. The oak comes spiced, the fruit has bitumen and saltbush aspects to it, and there’s a (dark) chocolatey sheen. It’s not dense or overwrought; it remains lively enough. I tossed up between 93-94 but ultimately few for the latter, on the basis that it squarely nails pure pleasure, in a warm-climate way.

560 cases. From vines planted in 1976 and 1989. 18 days on skins. Basket pressed (some blended back; heavier pressings kept separate). All French oak (Bordeaux coopered). Sturdy wine but with plenty of flesh and flow. Tannin churns throughout but black cherry, boysenberry, blackcurrant and loamy earth notes carry the day. Mint, fennel and herb notes too. It’s drinking well now but it’s not going anywhere in a hurry; this will sail on for many a year. Clear quality, if not necessarily X-factor.

This could be the best-value California Pinot Noir on the market. Full disclosure: I've not tasted them all, but I'm waiting to find a better one at the price. It has the alluring ying-yang-like savory-fruity combination. The emphasis is on the savory earthy nuances that Pinot Noir can transmit when it's not overdone. And, unlike many New World Pinot Noirs, it doesn't finish sweet. It's worth repeating: It's a terrific bargain.

Though a fruit-focused Pinot Noir, it delivers a hint of leafy flavors that keeps it in balance. Mild tannins lend support without intruding on its plush texture so it would be a good choice for drinking this summer. It finishes bright, not sweet, which is another plus. What’s truly amazing is the price -- a bargain for Pinot Noir.

Crisp, dry, lime, lemon, mild grass, stony, zesty finish, makes you want more, widely available. 'Nuff said.