The 2013 Pinot Noir Stormin’, from Dijon clone 667, offers fragrant, flowery notes intermixed with blueberry, raspberry and cherries. It is well-made, elegant, fresh, medium-bodied and certainly my favorite of all four of these Pinot Noirs.

I enjoyed the Chardonnays, especially the outstanding value, the 2014 Chardonnay from Sonoma Coast. A heck of a Chardonnay for $23.00, with notes of tropical pineapple and caramelized orange, this elegant, crisp, medium-bodied wine sells for a song. It is 94% barrel fermented, aged in 15% new French oak, American oak and bottled after eight months. The amazing thing is that there are 710,000 cases of this terrific value. Drink it over the next year.

Quite remarkable are the nearly 3 million cases of the 2014 Chardonnay Vintner’s Reserve, which emerges 49% from Monterey, 31% Santa Barbara, 13% Mendocino and 7% Sonoma, with 95% barrel fermented and 100% going through malolactic fermentation. The wine is aged in French and American oak, with monthly lees stirring, which must be absolutely astonishing given the quantity of wine. This is the real deal, and while there are still those who think big is bad, the Jackson family has proved time and time again that high-quality winemaking, in this case from wine-master Randy Ullom (who has been with Kendall-Jackson as long as I’ve been tasting there), oversees an impressive team to put this wine together. The 2014 offers notes of honeysuckle, poached pear, delicate pineapple and papaya in a medium-bodied, surprisingly fresh, lively style, with the oak pushed way to the background. This is a serious Chardonnay, which I know must be hard for many elitists to suffer, but it is the real deal.

The 2014 Sauvignon Blanc Equitem, from Knights Valley, is a smaller cuvée of 100% Sauvignon Blanc fermented and aged in new and used French puncheons, with the wine resting on its lees for six months. A steely, crisp wine with notes of caramelized grapefruit and a touch of white currant, this dry, zesty, steely style is less exotic than the Naissance and a different style altogether.

Slightly better than the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Knights Valley was the 2013 Proprietary Red, a blend of 63% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec, to be aged 24 months in 36% new French oak. This wine shows cedar wood, tobacco leaf, red and blackcurrants, licorice and background wood notes. It is medium to full-bodied and should drink well for at least a decade.

Slightly more honeyed and Loire Valley in style is the 2014 Sauvignon Blanc Les Pionniers, which has more honeysuckle and melony fruit. This is also 100% Sauvignon Blanc and treated essentially the same as the Tradition, but different clonal material has given it more of a Loire Valley style, where the Tradition tends to go more the direction of the so-called Bordeaux style of Sauvignon.

I tasted two Chardonnays. The 2013 Chardonnay Sonoma is a moderately priced, fragrant style of wine with medium body, only a touch of oak, and a nice buttery, brioche and poached pear component. It should drink nicely for another two years.

My favorite was the least expensive, the 2013 Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Coast, which is a 390,000-case cuvée of 100% Pinot Noir aged eight months in 21% new French oak. This wine shows plenty of rose petal and strawberry notes intermixed with root beer and earth. Medium-bodied, it has lovely, sweet tannin and plenty of currants and plums. Drink it over the next 1-2 years.

The 2013 Merlot Vintner’s Reserve is a 95,000-case cuvée made from 94.5% Merlot and the rest the other Bordeaux varietals. The wine is surprisingly good, and I’ve seen this cuvée strengthen in quality over the last few years. Notes of mocha, coffee bean, black cherry and currants are present in this medium-bodied, supple-textured, heady wine to drink over the next 4-5 years.

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Vintner’s Reserve (175,000 cases) shows silky tannins, classic tobacco leaf and blackcurrant fruit, medium body and a dark purple color. This is a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest the other Bordeaux varietals, aged in primarily French oak, with some American barrels utilized. It should drink well for 4-5 years.

The 2014 Chardonnay Avant, their naked version of Chardonnay fermented in neutral wood and stainless-steel tanks. There are 151,000 cases of this beauty that comes from Sonoma, Monterey, Mendocino and Santa Barbara. The wine shows crisp, elegant, pure pear and tropical fruit notes (including pineapple), medium body and good purity, acidity and liveliness. It’s a rather amazing wine for the price and the quantity.

Similar in style was the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Valley, which seemed straightforward, with notes of roasted coffee beans, underbrush, loamy soil notes and red and blackcurrants.

Slightly more concentrated, with hints of pineapple, hazelnut and orange blossom, the 2013 Chardonnay Russian River is a slightly bigger cuvée, and the wine also elegant, but offering more flavor, concentration and intensity. Both of these were aged nine months in about 50%-60% new French oak and another year in older barrels prior to being bottled.

The 2013 Chardonnay Anderson Valley is a fresh, light-bodied style of Chardonnay with hints of pear and brioche, crisp acidity and a light to medium-bodied personality. Drink it over the next year

The last offering, the 2013 Pinot Noir Hawkster comes from clone 2A, and displays plenty of almost strawberry and cherry-like fruitiness, with a real elegance, light tannin and medium body in a sexy, lush style. None of these are very big Pinots, but they are all elegant and savory.

The 2013 Pinot Noir Afleet, which comes from a specific block of the Maggy Hawk Vineyard and the Pommard clone (probably better known in Oregon), offers more raspberry and cola notes and an earthier, darker, more muscular style, without quite the finesse of the Jolie. Drink it over the next 3-5 years.

The 2014 Sauvignon Blanc Tradition comes two-thirds from Lake County and the rest from Sonoma and is 100% Sauvignon Blanc, aged largely in stainless steel while spending four months on its lees. It is crisp, elegant and shows fresh, light and melony notes, a whiff of grapefruit in a clearly zesty aperitif style. Drink it over the next year.

The 2013 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley seems straightforward, somewhat innocuous, light-bodied, with notes of sassafras, strawberry and red currant. Drink it over the next year.

The 2013 La Muse, like all of the 2013s, comes about one-third from Alexander Valley vineyards, 40-plus percent from Chalk Hill, and the rest Knights Valley and Bennett Valley – all high-elevation hillside vineyards. A blend of 89% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 3% Malbec at 14.3% alcohol, the wine is amazingly like a great vintage of Petrus, with mulberry, black cherry, licorice, truffle and unctuous, thick, juicy fruit all present in this full-bodied masterpiece. The tannins are still present. The wine has purity and savory presence and is remarkable. The finish goes on for well past a minute. This wine would probably benefit from 5-8 years of bottle age and last 40-50 years.

The 2012 Le Desir (64% Cabernet Franc, 24% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon and 4% Malbec) reminds me of a young vintage of Ausone, such as 2005. The wine has amazing minerality and an explosive blueberry nose intermixed with blackberries, new saddle leather, charcoal and camphor. It is full-bodied, with espresso notes emerging on the palate. There are 1,900 cases of this super-endowed, prodigious wine that should drink well for 35-40 years. How fun it would be for mega-millionaires to put this in a blind tasting of a great vintage of Ausone in 10, 20 or 30 years from now.

The 2013 La Joie, which is 46% from Knights Valley, 32% from Chalk Hill and 22% from Alexander Valley, is a blend of 71% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. Showing loads of graphite, cedar wood, charcoal, crème de cassis and forest floor, this may well turn out to be a 50+-year wine. It tastes like a great first-growth Pauillac and has an amazing amount of complexity and richness.

The 2012 La Joie, which is a blend of 76% Cabernet, 12% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot, blew me away. A profound effort, with 55% of it coming from Hillsides in Alexander Valley, 31% from Knights Valley and the balance from Chalk Hill, the wine shows great minerality, oodles of cr?me de cassis fruit, incense, licorice, crushed rock, and a provocative full-throttle mouthfeel. A wine of great intensity, purity and equilibrium, this definitely begs for 4-7 years of bottle aging and should drink well for at least 30+ years.

A wine offering notes of grilled steak, steak tartare, beef blood, blueberries and blackberries galore is the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder. Everything here emerges from the Jackson-owned Veeder Peak Vineyard. Chris Carpenter agrees that this has to be one of the greatest vintages he’s ever had the pleasure to work with – and he has some serious experience under his belt. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wine is utterly profound, and while the scoring system ends at 100, if I had to pick a single wine that may have been my favorite of all the tastings I did in Napa, this could have been my pick. Full-bodied, rich, with incredible integration of its component parts of acidity, tannin, alcohol and wood, the wine is lavishly built, has compelling purity, richness and density, and a finish, again, that rivals that of the Howell Mountain, being close to one minute in length. This wine will be certainly approachable young, but last 30-40+ years. One of the superstars of the Kendall-Jackson portfolio, the Lokoya wines all come from four microclimates in Napa Valley, are made by the brilliant Chris Carpenter, and range in size (production-wise) from a low of 340 cases for the Diamond Mountain to 1,750 for the Mt. Veeder. All of these wines are 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from some of the best parcels of vines available, aged in 100% new oak and bottled unfiltered. They have been on an absolute qualitative tear for a number of years and seem to go from strength to strength. We’re dealing with possibly the greatest vintage I have tasted in 37 years of visits to Napa Valley – 2013. So, I suppose these reviews are not that unusual.

One of two perfect wines ended my mini-tasting of the offerings from Lokoya in 2013. The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain from the Keyes Vineyard is an amazing wine. Thick purple in color with a stunning nose of lead pencil shavings, blackcurrants, mulberries and blackberries, the wine has a steely structure, yet enormous concentration, skyscraper-like mouth texture, and builds incrementally to a stunning finish of close to a minute. The purity, the richness, the overall equilibrium are unreal, but then this is Lokoya. Drink it over the next 30+ years. One of the superstars of the Kendall-Jackson portfolio, the Lokoya wines all come from four microclimates in Napa Valley, are made by the brilliant Chris Carpenter, and range in size (production-wise) from a low of 340 cases for the Diamond Mountain to 1,750 for the Mt. Veeder. All of these wines are 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from some of the best parcels of vines available, aged in 100% new oak and bottled unfiltered. They have been on an absolute qualitative tear for a number of years and seem to go from strength to strength. We’re dealing with possibly the greatest vintage I have tasted in 37 years of visits to Napa Valley – 2013. So, I suppose these reviews are not that unusual.

This beauty is nuanced, and has great structure and true varietal character reflective of the Willamette Valley. In the words of the winemaker, it's graceful, balanced, deliberate and sincere. It has an earthy yet refined character - think rose petal, cherry, black tea and especially pomegranate. It was aged in 100 percent French barrels, 25 percent new. Its character is different from what you find in Sonoma's Russian River district or the cool areas of Monterey. It's more earthy, and for me the notes of pomegranate, cranberry and black tea define it.