Offers a cedary, woodsy edge, with dried dark berry, oak, espresso and gravelly notes. Slow to expand but does so pleasantly, ending more complex. Mineral and graphite elements emerge on the aftertaste.

Such an elegant, yet expressive Californian Cabernet on the nose. Aromas of blackcurrant cassis mingle with dried herbs and cigar box. The palate opens to layers of dark fruit anise and smoke. Terrific balance, depth and length with a dry finish. This Californian red wine is made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown in Sonoma, mostly Knights Valley. It's actually a blend of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, and a splash of Petit Verdot, Merlot and Cabernet Franc grapes. The wine was matured in French oak barrels mostly, with a few American oak barrels for the 2012 vintage. Pair with filet mignon or lamb with rosemary.

Lastly, the Proprietary Red Wine blend, the 2012 Proprietary Red Folly, which is a blend of 44% Zinfandel, 21% Syrah, 21% Petite Sirah and 14% Merlot, shows nice berry fruit and a somewhat Zinfandel character, even though it’s less than half Zinfandel. Good peppery, meaty, briary raspberry and sweet-and-sour cherry fruit. Drink it over the next 4-5 years.

The biggest cuvée they produce is their least expensive wine, their 2012 Zinfandel Mendocino, which comes from at least six Zinfandel vineyards and is a blend of 87% Zinfandel, 9% Petite Sirah and the rest Syrah, aged nine months in about 15% new oak. It is medium ruby and shows elegant raspberry and cranberry-like fruit, briary herbs and lots of spice in a medium-bodied, easygoing, straightforward style. Drink it over the next several years.

From another high-elevation site, the 2012 Zinfandel Perli Vineyard shows good acidity, medium body and represents an intriguing blend of 81% Zinfandel, 16% Merlot and the rest Syrah, aged in 25% new oak. This wine shows almost Pinot Noir-like berry fruit, earth, herbs and spice. It should be consumed over the next several years.

The 2012 Zinfandel Shamrock Vineyard, which is 84% Zinfandel and 16% Syrah from a very high vineyard at 2,800 feet, is aged 15 months in 15% new oak. It shows red currants, pomegranate and raspberry in a red-fruit oriented style. It is medium-bodied with crisp, tart acids and a heady finish. Drink it over the next several years.

The 2013 Le Desir represents 2,500 cases. This is the softest of the three wines in 2013, and this blend of 61% Cabernet Franc, 23% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Malbec emerges with more than half of the cuvée coming from Hillsides in Alexander Valley, 37% from Chalk Hill and the rest tiny dollops from Bennett Valley and Knights Valley. Opaque purple, like its siblings, the wine is showing incredible floral, blueberry and espresso notes, exotic Asian spices, velvety texture, a supple, multilayered mouthfeel and incredible finish, with incense and licorice. This is magnificent young wine, with a good 40-50 years of upside potential. Pierre Seillan is justifiably proud of what he has achieved, and his first vintage of Vérité was only 1998, but they go from strength to strength.

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Dakota (445 cases) is absolutely magnificent. Opaque black/purple in color, it comes across like a Château Montrose from a great vintage – a very earthy St.-Estèphe-inspired wine with the essence of loamy soil and crushed rocks interwoven with blackberry and cassis fruit. Some oak makes an appearance, but it is pushed to the background by the extravagance and enormous body and extract of this wine of phenomenal intensity. This is a classic Pierre Seillan style of wine meant for 25-40 years of cellaring.

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain, which comes from two sources, the Yverdon and Spring Mountain vineyards, is also 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and also inky bluish/purple in color. The Spring Mountain hallmarks of white flowers, blueberries, black raspberries and blackberry are all present in the extraordinary aromatics of this wine. It is full-bodied, pure and rich, with the oak beautifully concealed and married with the wine’s stunningly rich fruit. This is another tour de force from Chris Carpenter. Look for it to drink well for the next 30-35 years.

The 2014 Zinfandel Fanucchi Wood Road Vineyard also comes from nearly century-old Zinfandel vines, aged in 30% new French oak prior to being bottle unfined and unfiltered after eight months. This is as close to perfection as a Zinfandel can get, and interestingly enough, there is a little Petite Sirah in the blend, which may add to the blue fruit and floral character that this incredibly complex, multidimensional, magnificent Zinfandel offers. This is right up there among the greatest Zinfandels I ever tasted in Northern California, and literally must be consumed to be believed. Huge fruit, big, bold flavors, and an all-American style make for quite an expressive, exotic, super-concentrated and compelling Zinfandel. Drink it over the next 5-8 years.

The 2012 La Muse, which is 85% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc and 4% Malbec, is a smaller cuvée of 1,840 cases. The wine has plenty of spice box, cedar wood, Christmas fruitcake and Asian plum sauce, along with black cherry and blackcurrant fruit. Ripe, round, full-bodied and opulent, this is a wine that can be drunk now or cellared for another three decades. Interestingly, the alcohol levels are not all that high in any of these wines, with most of them rarely exceeding 14.3%.

Absolutely magnificent and probably the candidate for my favorite of all these Pinot Noirs is the 2013 Pinot Noir Arrendell Vineyard from the Russian River. This is one of the oldest Pinot Noir vineyards in Northern California, planted in 1975 with the Martini clone. The wine struggles to ripen, according to Don Hartford, and is picked after Halloween in most vintages. Aged in 44% new French oak, bottled unfined and unfiltered, the wine has an opaque ruby/purple color and a gorgeous nose of sassafras, sweet sherry liqueur, black raspberries and floral notes with background forest floor and underbrush. Intense, full-bodied and made from tiny yields of just over a half-ton of fruit per acre, this prodigious and world-class Pinot Noir should drink nicely for 10-15 years.

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Montana offers chocolate, sweet black cherries, a dense purple color, great intensity and purity – a real mountain style, but with surprisingly soft tannins. It is easily a 30-year wine. The good news is that there are 520 cases of this big, boisterous, yet voluptuously textured offering from Anakota.

A brilliant wine from winemaker Chris Carpenter and the Kendall-Jackson family, this blend of 89% Cabernet Sauvignon and 11% Merlot, mostly coming from mountain vineyards owned by the Jackson family, is fabulous. The 2013 Cardinale Proprietary Red Wine is dense purple-colored, a big, sweet kiss of crème de cassis as well as licorice, blackberry and espresso are all present in this full-bodied, rather sublime and intense Cabernet Sauvignon that should drink well for 25 or more years. This was aged in about 91% new French oak for 18-20 months prior to bottling. It is certainly one of the finest Cardinales I have tasted in my experience.

The 2012s are the most showy and forward of the three vintages, which is not surprising, since the vintage is flamboyant and they are already three years of age. Even as impressive, but showing more truffles, charcoal, graphite and camphor, along with blackberry and cassis, is the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Dakota (1,017 cases). This wine shows even more fruit than its sibling and is bigger, bolder and slightly broader across the palate. All these wine are highly recommended and are brilliant efforts, but will probably need coaxing and patience in the cellar, given their rather bigger-than-life styles and richness.

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain comes from several parcels, most notably the Wallis vineyard. The wine has an opaque, black-as-a-moonless-night color and an incredible nose of volcanic ash and charcoal interwoven with creme de cassis, blackberry, licorice, grilled meats and almost a beef blood-like component from a grilled steak. The wine has fabulous body and tremendous opulence that nearly hides its significant tannin and structure. This is an enormously endowed, rich wine that probably has 30-40 years of upside potential.

As for the 2013 Pinot Noir Fog Dance Vineyard, another cool site from a hillside in Green Valley, this is aged in 37% new French oak and from the Dijon clone 667 and 777. Absolutely prodigious Pinot Noir, with notes of blood orange, rose petals, blueberry and blackcurrant fruit, this is a stunner, with full-bodied texture, great depth, an opaque ruby/purple color and killer concentration and length. This Pinot Noir should age beautifully for at least a decade or more.

The 2013 Pinot Noir Velvet Sisters Vineyard (480 cases) comes from the northern end of Anderson Valley and Dijon clones 115, 667, 777 and a clone often seen in Oregon, Pommard. Aged in 37% new oak, this is another compelling, blue-fruited Pinot Noir with notes of spring flowers, blueberries, blackberries, Asian plum sauce and forest floor, in a full-bodied, gorgeously textured and opulent style. This is certainly one of the most sexy of all these Pinot Noirs for drinking now and over the next decade.

The 2014 Chardonnay Four Hearts Vineyard is a larger cuvée of 1,285 cases that comes from relatively old vines for Northern California (planted in 1975). The wine is super-opulent, offering terrific honeysuckle, orange marmalade and pineapple notes in a full-bodied, sexy, super-fresh, pure style. This stunning Chardonnay was aged in 43% new French oak and should drink well for 5-6 years.

The 2014 Zinfandel Highwire Vineyard comes from 100+-year-old vines, with half head-pruned and the other half on a trellising system. It spent nine months in 46% new French oak before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. This cuvée of 500 cases is absolutely sensational Zinfandel, just brilliant, with briary, black cherry fruit exploding from the glass. The wine is full-bodied, opulent and lavishly rich, with an extravagant concentration, purity and depth. This is about as good as a Zinfandel can be, so kudos to Don Hartford and winemaker Jeff Stewart.

The 2014 Zinfandel Dina’s Vineyard (350 case) displays loads of minerality compared to some of the other ones, with a huge concentration of black fruits, roasted Mediterranean herbs, spice box, licorice and some pepper and meat. This is a powerful, full-throttle Zinfandel to drink over the next 7-8 years.

The 2014 Chardonnay Stone Côte is actually a tiny parcel within the more famous and larger Durell Vineyard. Like most of these wines, indigenous yeast fermentations are encouraged, and the wine is 100% barrel-fermented and aged completely in French oak with the percentage of new oak generally ranging from the upper 30 percentile to 50% or so. This wine is a terrific example of Chardonnay, with a greenish hue to its light straw color and a stunning nose of tropical fruit, citrus oil and orange blossom. It is full-bodied, has great acidity and delicious up-front fruit. This will be a killer Chardonnay when released next year.

The 2012s are the most showy and forward of the three vintages, which is not surprising, since the vintage is flamboyant and they are already three years of age. The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Montana (1,317 cases) is a beauty. Loads of chocolate, crème de cassis, black cherry and crushed rock are all present in this broad, savory, full-bodied, multi-dimensional wine. This is a gorgeous wine with terrific intensity and, while approachable now, should continue to evolve for at least 20-25 years.

The 2013 Legacy Proprietary Red is a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Cabernet Franc and the rest Malbec and Petit Verdot was aged 26 months in 60% new French oak. Coming from high-elevation estate vineyards in Alexander Valley, especially the Jimtown Vineyard, the wine is beautiful, with fabulous concentration and purity, a dense purple color, a gorgeous blueberry and blackberry fruit nose, with licorice, camphor and graphite. The wine is full-bodied and opulent with wonderfully integrated, toasty new oak. Layered and rich, the wine can be drunk now or cellared for up to another 20-25 years. Kudos to South African winemaker Graham Weerts for his efforts with this offering.

The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Monolith is the smallest cuvée (198 cases) coming from a vineyard at a 1,750-foot elevation. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon aged in 70% new French oak is dense, full-bodied and opulent, with blueberry and blackberry fruit, wet rocks giving it a mineral-laced character, and a full-throttle finish with moderately sweet tannin. This is a 20-to 30-year wine.