Smooth, lush and ripe with rich plum, spice and blackberry; dense and complete with lovely depth and balance.

The 2013 Le Désir is once again alluring. Le Désir is quite powerful and intense, but it also has fairly soft contours for the year. Dark cherry, plum, smoke, chocolate, mocha, licorice and cloves are all pushed forward. Energetic and explosive, the 2013 is going to need at least a few years in bottle to settle down, but it has plenty to offer. I tasted the 2013 from tank just prior to bottling.

The 2013 La Muse is wonderfully vivid and expressive from the outset, especially in the aromatics. Graphite, smoke, lavender, menthol and licorice are all super-expressive. Those notes carry through to the palate, where the wine is dense, powerful and bursting at the seams with energy. Hints of mocha, chocolate, spice and leather add the final shades of nuance. Today, La Muse is the most expressive of Vérité's 2013s, with plenty of floral and savory notes that add complexity to the super-rich dark fruit. I tasted the 2013 from tank just prior to bottling.

Although striking for its richness and the sense of fruity density that are the hallmarks of this renowned site, Siduri's latest Pisoni bottling is a slightly supple, exceptionally well-structured Pinot whose solidity and inklings of varietal velvet raise expectations of very good things ahead. That is not to say that it is in any way hidden or closed at the moment, but those willing to look past its admittedly delectable juiciness and allow it a chance to fully unfold will find that waiting for some three to five years was the far better course than hasty drinking.

One of the producer’s consistently top-notch vineyard designates, this vintage maintains the mystique, coaxing out earthy sandalwood, smoke, char and truffle around richer overtones of butterscotch, clove and baked plum. Balanced and succulent, this is a fun, complex wine.

A funk of truffle and foresty pine resin is joined by orange peel for an inviting and intriguing opening to this wine that is otherwise velvety, structured and intense. Juicy on the finish, it shares flavors of black cherry and black tea.

Aromas of rose petals and fresh-hoed earth come to the fore as this wine opens, followed by fine-grained, intense tannins and savory wooded notes. Black pepper, red cherry, sea salt and dried herb pop at different times. It’s still tight, so let this wine open in the glass or decant; better yet, cellar through 2023.

A brooding, thick-skinned wine with a tinge of juicy pomegranate and cherry, this has a thicket of reduced oak that enters on the nose. Over time in the glass, it evolves into a twist of baking spices and pine forest.

Smooth and silky with juicy cherry fruit and sweet oak; tangy, crisp and balanced with style and length.

Among the richer, more immediately fruity of the new Siduri Pinots and a wine that earns high marks for its varietal precision, its admirable depth and its very careful construction, the 2014 from Rosella's Vineyard shows plenty of volume without ever tipping the scales in the direction of being too much. Its juicy appeals definitely invite early drinking, yet its concentration and balance provide reasons enough for a few years of waiting.

Soft and layered, this wine has firmness and depth to its structure, and is dark in brooding baked plum and cinnamon stick. A pungency of tight oak wraps its way around the fruit and savory spice, suggesting additional time in cellar, through 2023.

Smooth and lush with creamy texture and lovely generous fruit; toasty vanilla oak with soft acidity; long and balanced.

This lush offering opens with appealing aromas of rose petals and fresh strawberries, then glides into a smooth-as-silk midpalate. The berry/cherry fruit is nicely adorned with toasty barrel flavors, and it’s as satiny as new sheets. You’ll find it hard to keep from gulping this by the glassful.

Dense, rich red fruit belies an elegant wine that finds balance despite the concentration of vanilla and berry. Soft, approachable and integrated tannin and oak let the whole exist as one, instead of separate parts. This shows off the appellation’s mountain fruit and rocky minerality.

Tangled in its tannins when first opened, this wine requires a day of air to take shape. The acidity hits the tannins with the spark of crushed stone, while flavors of tart plum and peach skin fill out the hard edges. Blended from 20 vineyards and five varieties (it's 75 percent cabernet sauvignon, with merlot, franc, petit verdot and malbec), this needs bottle age to soften.

The 2013 Red Wine (Sonoma County) is powerful and incisive, with plenty of Cabernet Franc top notes that add lift to the dense fruit. Linear and pulsating with energy, the 2013 is super-expressive today, but will be even better in another few years. Sweet red berry, pomegranate, spice and mint are all nicely delineated on the vibrant, saline finish.

Anakota's 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Dakota is plush, round and sensual, with plenty of mocha, chocolate, blackberry and crème de cassis. This clay-rich terroir produces rich, sumptuous wines that emphasize depth and mid-palate intensity. Because of that, this is a fairly approachable 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon although it will also develop nicely with time in bottle. Smoke, game, licorice, plum and earthy notes wrap around the dense finish.

A zesty, vibrant style, with lively cherry, plum and raspberry flavors picking up a dusty, cedary edge. This tilts toward grainy tannins on the aftertaste but the flavors remain persistent.

Smooth, ripe cherry fruit with juicy style and crisp acidity; tangy and fresh with racy style and good length.

Juicy and bright with tangy citrus and long, smooth flavors; crisp and balanced, long and racy.

Sweetly ripe and soft, this wine has a zesty acidity that gives its polished, voluptuous red fruit an inner glow. It's a simple and delicious zin to pour at a cookout with grilled chicken and sausages.

Silky and juicy with bright acidity and good structure; racy, fresh and balanced; crisp, clean and classic; America's biggest-selling Chardonnay.

This weighty, fairly intense, full-bodied offering steers directly to ripeness and shows a mildly chocolaty edge to its more typical themes of cherries, berries and plums, but it does not give into excess or unbalanced softness and has more than enough juicy substance to buffer its nominal tannins and noticeable heat. Aging will not make it an especially elegant wine but it will allow for integration and welcome smoothing, and in two or three years’ time it should turn the trick as a tasty foil to a medium-rare rack of lamb.

Very much a piece of its own and a wine that offers a slightly different look at the grape, this solid, slightly tannic, somewhat bigger-framed version emphasizes structure over outgoing fruit. It teases with suggestions of dark cherries and spice in its deep, yet unevolved flavors, and, if never a Pinot that achieves the varietal’s velvety feel, it will soften and find a more supple stance with age.

Black cherry, chipped slate and an earthy nutmeg character show on the nose of this stylishly labeled bottling. Medium in weight, it offers energetic and tart cranberry-cherry flavors as well as a menthol element on the palate, which is tangy throughout and wipes up clean.