The perfect introductory to Monterey pinot, the Caramel road label comes mainly from the Panorama Vineyard. Look for a round, silky texture full of red fruit, black cherry, and cola dusted in baking spices. Fruity, charming, and easy to sip, it will be a hit with consumers looking for lighter, juicy, soft red wine. It is certified sustainable and ready to drink.

This pinot noir comes from coastal California vineyards, including Arroyo Seco, Santa Maria Valley, and Monterey. The cooler sites help the acidity levels that keep the wine fresh. It's aged eight months in French and American oak (only four percent is new), adding some vanilla but mostly helping to expand the soft, round, earthy, cran-cherry fruit with a dash of spice. Ready to drink with simple foods, like a pulled pork sandwich. The fruit is 47% Sonoma Coast, 44% Central Coast, and 9% Mendocino County.

The 2020 Trousseau Copain Estate offers up pretty varietal character, with hints of sweet dried cherry, licorice, rose petal, mint, cinnamon and orange peel. The fruit is just a bit dried out, but otherwise the 2020 is nicely done, especially for the year.

Medium to full red-purple; there is abundant ripe and sweet raspberry and blackberry fruit on the bouquet, backed by subtle French oak; a rich, full-bodied palate with lots of extract, adding coffee, vanilla and mocha to the generous berry fruit.

Ruby-red color. Intensely perfumed bouquet of spiced red berries, candied cherry and baking spices. Deep and sweet, with supple raspberry and cherry preserve flavors, soft tannins and a touch of finishing warmth. Ample, broad and sappy on the back, with the ripe red fruit flavors repeating. Not for Old World palates.

Deep, dark red colour, with purple and black tinges. Smells overripe. And oaky! Fruitcake and raisins. Rich, opulent, extravagant wine, with lush flavour and masses of tannin. A very warm-grown, sunny wine, just a shade overripe and there's also an element of 'dead fruit'. Oaky throughout the nose and palate. Not to my taste, but others will love it.

Deep red/purple, bright - very good colour. Fresh, simple, herbal grapy aromas with some banana esters and simplicity. Some dark and red fruits also. Palate is medium-bodied and well laced with drying tannins, but quite good weight as well. A tad angular.

Impenetrable purple inky colour, the aromas likewise infantile and raw, but clean, bright, ripe and attractive. The palate is the same: very bright, shrill and raw but no harsh edges. Very good - if you like raw callow young reds.

Deep, bright, youthful, purple colour. Very fresh, primary aroma of banana and dark berries, somewhat raw and unready. It's the same on the palate: full-bodied and grippy, with a certain rawness. Bright acidity. It's firm and tight, and somewhat callow. It needs more time. It's a bit shrill and infantile to drink now.

Light yellow hue. Fresh yeasty and faintly almond-like aromas, the palate light and tight with good intensity and drive, length and a clean, dry finish. It's fairly straightforward in its youth, but very pleasant drinking - soft, flavoursome and balanced, with rewarding depth and persistence. I suspect it will build more interesting flavours and aromas with a little time in bottle. (35% grenache blanc, 30% clairette, 20% roussanne, 10% picpoul, 5% bourboulenc. The unclarified juice was fermented in ceramic eggs.)

The 2011 Roussanne has a very pretty peaches and fragrant blossom nose with a honeyed / musky undercurrent. Medium-bodied and dry with an appealing silkiness to the texture, it has a good concentration of straightforward honeyed-peach flavors on the nose with a medium to high level of balanced acid and good persistence on the finish. Drink it now through 2015+.

Bright medium yellow colour. Yeasty and slight acetate aromas with a touch of volatile acidity. The palate is slightly flat and arguably lacks a little acidity. A big mouthfilling wine with volume and some marzipan characters. Slight lemony aftertaste, but it somehow lacks life.

Medium to full yellow colour, advanced. Strong marzipan, nutty, apricot kernel aromas, then a full-bodied palate with tannic grip and a suggestion of stale lees character, which persists. A big, bold, rather unsubtle wine. But wow, it has character alright.

Medium straw-yellow colour with a shy, reserved bouquet of honey and mead, straw and lightly toasted nuts. The wine is lighter-bodied than anticipated, with moderate depth and length. It finishes a touch short, but what's there is appealing. I suspect it will fill out a little with a bit more time in the bottle. ( Aged in French barriques, 10% new, for 6 months) Drink 2019 - 2024

Texture and intensity but it has a quietness to it. Spice, nashi pear and stone fruits. Minimalist and neutral but not without body.

Meaty, smoky, savory nose. Fruity on the palate but that meaty thing is still prevalent here, too, quite savory. Very Good.

Fruity, Cherry Jolly Rancher on the nose. Rather non-descript on the palate, with very light fruit, and a light dose of acidity. Very Good.

Leading in savory red fruit, cedar and clove, this light-bodied wine offers persistent freshness and edgy flavor.

Arguably the prototype for California's iconic barrel-aged Chardonnay style, this sustainable wine has maintained its position as the most popular Chardonnay inthe US for many years. With plenty of oak spice and whiffs of vanilla from sur-liebarrel ageing and monthly battonage, the nose is layered with baked apple,hazelnut and a bit of the butter true to the malolactic style. In the mouth, thewine is well-balanced if a little simple, with tropical pineapple and mangofl avours brightened with Meyer lemon.

This ripe red wine from California is made from a blend of cabernet sauvignon with merlot, syrah, petit verdot and cabernet franc. The result is a complex wine with dark fruit and oak-derived vanilla and spice notes. It’s dry and nicely structured, which makes this stand out from many similarly priced red wines from California. Drink now to 2026.

This shiraz from Yangarra has good control, but it still didn’t really grab me.
It’s very shy in the aromatics department and while there’s good, beefy flavour in the mouth it has a general dullness that makes it hard to get excited over it. Raspberry, tar, dried herbs. The mid palate is good but the finish feels (slightly) clumsy. Not bad but I far preferred the Yangarra Cadenzia of the same vintage.

Light, bright yellow colour, with a metallic, steely note to the aroma, the palate likewise very taut and reserved, bone-dry and borderline austere. There's hints of candlewax and tealeaf, and a faint trace of nuttiness. The finish is very tight and ramrod-straight. It needs more time to reveal its 'true beauty'.

Stone fruit, quince, gently nutty bouquet, echoing barrel contact; dry and pleasingly savoury in the mouth. There is a touch of earthiness and the finish is very dry, tightly-composed and appetising. (Wild fermented and then aged for seven months in barriques and puncheons, 25% new. Certified biodynamic/organic.)

This full-bodied, powerful and tannic wine exerts a big force on the palate, gripping very ripe blackberry and black cherries with a firm, tooth-drying texture. Time will mellow it, but the muscularity will remain. Best from 2028.