Another prime example of the genius of Chris Carpenter, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain reveals a deep, saturated purple hue as well as textbook Howell Mountain black fruits, scorched earth, savory herbs, bay leaf, and dark chocolate. It's a powerful, structured, full-bodied Cabernet offering remarkable purity as well as overall balance and equilibrium. Hide bottles for 4-5 years (if not longer) and enjoy over the following 25-30 years.

Another incredibly concentrated, focused, insanely impressive wine in the lineup is the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain, which offers a powerful nose of darker currants, scorched earth, graphite, and savory herb aromas and flavors. This full-bodied, dense, concentrated, powerful, inward beauty needs 4-6 years in the cellar but will age forever.

The 2021 Red Wine is mostly Merlot yet includes a splash of other Bordeaux varieties. It's a fleshy, full-bodied, concentrated Merlot yet nevertheless has remarkable purity and elegance, with ultra-fine tannins. Ripe black cherries, chocolate, leafy herbs, and tobacco notes give this an almost Pomerol-like style, and while it's just about impossible to resist today, I see no reason it shouldn't evolve for 20+ years if well stored.

The 2021 Cabernet Franc is a more elegant, almost Old World style expression of this incredible variety, and it's every bit as impressive as the Red Blend. Coming from Spring and Diamond Mountain sites, it has a gorgeous array of red, blue, and black fruits with some classic Cabernet Franc orange blossom, black tea, and floral nuances. This medium to full-bodied, ultra-pure, seamless, incredibly elegant 2021 can be drunk today or cellared for two decades.

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc. It's a classic Mountain Cabernet with full-bodied richness and ample, although velvety, tannins as well as pure cassis and currant-like fruits, gorgeous mid-palate depth and opulence on the palate, and beautiful complexity in its tobacco, graphite, and bouquet garni-like nuances. It's another remarkable wine from Carpenter that has some upfront accessibility today yet deserves 3-4 years in the cellar. It will have two decades of overall longevity, and as top Napa Cabernet Sauvignon goes, it's a terrific value.

While Bosche has a higher water table (so more vigor) and ripens earlier, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Sycamore Vineyard comes from a lower vigor site (near Staglin) that gets afternoon shade and ripens about a week to a week and a half later than Bosche. The blend is 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot, with the aging spanning 21 months in 63% new French oak. It's a more mineral-driven, savory wine, offering a stunning core of blackcurrants, cassis, pure graphite, leather, and dried herbs and it s already nuanced and complex. These carry to a full-bodied wine that has fine tannins, a big, dense mid-palate, and a great finish.

Darker red, blue, and black fruits, sappy spring flowers, graphite, and chalky minerality all define the 2021 Cabernet Franc Howell Mountain, a medium to full-bodied, ultra-pure, fine, graceful Cabernet Franc with tons to love.

Leading off the Mt. Brave releases, the 2021 Merlot Mount Veeder has a beautiful perfume of red, blue, and black fruits as well as lots of floral nuances. It's full-bodied and concentrated, with a layered, seamless mouthfeel and a gorgeous finish. It can be consumed now and over the coming 15 years.

A new single vineyard that's from just in front of Cardinale (just across from To Kalon), the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Colline Vineyard is 100% varietal that spent 21 months in 55% new French oak. While this fruit previously went into the Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, Kristy Melton thought it was too special and would make a great single vineyard. Cassis, perfumed blue fruits, violets, darker chocolate, and graphite notes all define the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with beautiful tannins, a layered, balanced mouthfeel, and outstanding length. It's a gorgeous bottle of wine.

A site that they've worked with since 1968 (they're the only estate to work with this fruit, which went into the Beaulieu Private Reserve in the past), the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosche has a big, complex bouquet of red and black fruits as well as savory herbs, baking spices, chocolate, and graphite. It's rich, full-bodied, has a rounded, layered mouthfeel, beautiful tannins, and a great finish.

The 2021 Merlot Howell Mountain checks in as 93% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot, and 2% Tannat, with the levage spanning 22 months in 70% new French oak. This beauty has bright red and blue fruits as well as complex, spicy nuances of dried flowers, savory herbs, and graphite. It's rich, medium to full-bodied, has ripe tannins, and a great finish. It's concentrated, has a smoking good mid-palate, and will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age.

The 2021 Cabernet Franc Mount Veeder should be snatched up by savvy readers, It's a stunning value in top-end Cabernet Franc that will have two decades of longevity. Cassis, black raspberries, graphite, and plenty of varietal floral notes emerge on the nose, and it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, building tannins, and outstanding overall balance. It's a powerful, structured, yet elegant 2021 that will benefit from 3-5 years of bottle age and evolve for 15+.

The 2021 Chardonnay W.S. Keyes Vineyard is terrific. Coming from a site on Howell Mountain, it has bright lemon and tangerine fruit as well as some honeyed, flinty mineral, spice, and savory herb notes. It's medium-bodied, has bright acidity, beautiful balance, and outstanding length. It's going to benefit from 2-4 years of bottle age, and I suspect have 10-12 years of overall longevity.

The 2021 Malbec Mount Veeder comes from two sites and relatively old vines (1994 and 2007 plantings). Ripe blue fruits, iron, tons of spice, and a certain exotic quality define this beauty, which is medium to full-bodied, nicely concentrated, and balanced. I'd give it just a few years and enjoy over the following decade.

Coming 50% Bosche and the rest from the Sycamore and Red Barn vineyards, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet Franc that spent 21 months in 63% new French oak. This inky-hued 2021 has a killer nose of black and blue fruits to go with textbook tobacco, lead pencil, darker chocolate, and baking spice-like aromas and flavors. Rich, full-bodied, and concentrated, with fine tannins, it's a smoking bottle of wine at the price.

Coming all from Carneros and Coombsville and aged in 43% new French oak, the 2022 Chardonnay Napa Valley is medium gold-hued and has a gorgeous perfume of honeyed tangerine, exotic flowers, and subtle baking spice notes in a medium-bodied, layered, rounded, beautifully textured profile on the palate. This singular, exotic, impeccably made Chardonnay will keep for 3-4 years.

The largest production, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot, and 1% Merlot that's from both mountain and valley floor sites. It's a classic 2021 with its fresher, focused, perfumed style as well as medium to full-bodied richness, lots of currant and black cherry fruits, some tobacco and graphite notes, building tannins, and a great finish. It's a serious wine that will age.

Coming from the northern end of the appellation, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District is all varietal aged 22 months in 90% new oak, and I couldn't imagine a more majestic, regal wine. This beauty s saturated purple hue is followed by an incredible array of ripe black fruits, smoked tobacco, loamy earth, lavender, and graphite. Winemaker Chris Carpenter has hit an undeniable home run with his 2021s, and this is unquestionably one of the legendary wines in the vintage. Full-bodied and massively concentrated, with velvety tannins and remarkable purity, it will be drinkable with just 4-5 years of bottle age and evolve for 30-40 years in cold cellars.

The 2021 Merlot W.S. Keyes Vineyard reminds me of a great vintage of Petrus, and if there's a better Merlot out there, I don't know of it. Incredible dark fruits (blackberries, darker cherries), leather, damp earth, graphite, and violet notes all emerge on the nose, and it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, building, ultra-fine tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish. It's heavenly today yet will cruise for 15-20 years in cold cellars.

The perfect 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon checks in as 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot, all of which spent 22 months in 80% new French oak. The idea of this release is to showcase fruit from throughout the valley, and to say that winemaker Chris Carpenter succeeded would be an understatement. It boasts off-the-charts richness and depth as well as notes of cassis, toasted spices, graphite, tobacco, and espresso, with perfectly integrated oak. Inky purple-hued, full-bodied, voluptuously textured, and flawlessly balanced, it can be drunk any time over the coming 25 years or more.

The 2021 ‘Upper Barn’ is a utterly fantastic new Chardonnay bottling by Stonestreet. Right away on the nose you are allured with layers of tropical fruits and butterscotch alongside juicy pear and suggestions of baking spice dusted pie crust. The palate is rich and dense with a heady concentration and beautiful underlying tension. Finishing exceedingly long, this is a head-turning bottling that will cellar well for at least another decade. Drink 2023-2033

The brilliant 2021 Stonestreet ‘Broken Rock Vineyard’ Chardonnay comes from this high altitude site in the Alexander Valley. Beautifully textured and rich, this offers bright underlying finesse with ripe pineapple and mango fruit flavors alongside flinty accents on the palate. This is a joy to consume right now and over the next eight plus years. Drink 2023-2031.

The outstanding 2018 Stonestreet ‘Alexander Valley’ Cabernet Sauvignon is a fantastic new bottling that is already beautifully evolved. This is neatly balanced stuff with cassis, black currants and shades of freshly tilled soils on the palate. Medium to full-bodied, enjoy this beautiful, well-structured Cabernet now and over the next ten years. Drink 2023-2033

The 2021 Chardonnay Perilune strikes an effortless balance between vibrance and ripeness. It opens with streaks of matchstick and saline that give way to white peaches and honeysuckle perfume on the nose. The palate is satiny and expansive, its fruit tinged by exotic tones of ginger and flowers, and it has a very long, flavorful finish. It's beautiful now but will be long lived in bottle.

Opens with toasted hazelnut and vanilla bean notes that lead to a core of creamy pear and citrus flavors, which lengthen nicely around toasted spices and subtle mineral twinges. Drink now through 2030. 128 cases made.