Big yet deftly balanced, presenting rich blackberry, blueberry and raspberry notes, with toasty and smoky oak, ending with a fistful of chewy tannins. The flavors push past the tannic finish. Should reward short-term cellaring.

Beautiful balance sets the stage for the cherry, black currant and spice flavors. Rich, dense and lively in structure, capped by ripe, fine-grained tannins. The aftertaste evokes dark fruit and spice. Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Drink now through 2020.

Focused on pure, rich and firm blackberry, spice, cedar and crushed rock notes, this is a vibrant, structured Pinot, with firm tannins and excellent length. The acidity and tannins give this backbone and structure.

Pure, rich and layered, showing vibrant, raspberry, blueberry and wild berry notes, with touches of stem-laced tannins and savory floral and dusty berry scents. Ends with firm, gripping tannins and good length.

Delivers spice and pure, ripe, savory plum and raspberry notes in a focused, delicate style, lingering on the finish, where the medley of berry flavors commingle. The tannins are firm and pleasantly earthy.

Ripe, juicy and appealing, with peach, yellow apple and pear flavors that feature a succulent note and hints of melon and honeysuckle. Focused and long, with a refreshing finish.

Gobs of rich, juicy blackberry and red berry fruit are front and center, shaded by creamy oak and deceptively firm tannins. Offers immediate appeal, with room for cellaring.

Racy and full of layered fruit. Aromas of smoky boysenberry and anise lead to rich, zesty blueberry and roasted spice flavors that linger.

This tightly wound red shows some lovely boysenberry, toasty mocha and game flavors inside. Hands off for now.

The 2012 Pinot Noir is the maiden release from the Willamette Valley. It has a clean and pure black cherry and cassis-scented bouquet that unfurls beautifully in the glass. The palate is sweet and ripe on the entry with plush red fruit, a touch of sea salt and cracked black pepper on the suave finish. This marks a commendable debut.

Offers lots of fruit and a bit of muscle, with aromas of boysenberry and toasty mocha, presenting zesty flavors of plum and roasted herb.

A nervy style, featuring vibrant acidity that enlivens the core of grapefruit and lemon-citrus flavors, ending long and clean, with a lemon peel bite.

Juicy and bright, with a refreshing note of acidity that runs through the lemongrass, melon, citrus and green apple flavors, featuring plenty of appealing herbal accents on the finish. Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris.

Very deep, dark, dense red/purple/black hue. It smells of coconut, vanilla, toasty, charred oak, and graphite. The wine is very full-bodied, concentrated and dense but again, it's so young and firm, dense and unready it's difficult to evaluate. When you work the wine in the glass, dark chocolate and mocha as well as espresso coffee emerge, but the wine is still closed and tannic. Who can tell where it comes from or what grape it is? A formidable wine. Cellar it! There is amazing concentration and phenomenal tannin structure here. A truly decadent wine.

K-J calls this wine “spring in a glass.” It’s blended with a touch of Roussanne, Viognier, Chardonnay, Grüner Veltliner and Albarinõ. It’s a complex dry white, with layers of flavor: juicy pear, honeydew melon, tangerine, white flowers with crisp citrus in the finish. The perfect wine to pair with entrée salads, seafood, creamy pastas.

FRIDAY wines need to be readily available and pass inspection, something you can pick up easily on the way home from work and still be something special. Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve wines have been reliable for more than 30 years. When you think of the tapestry of vineyards that Jackson Family Wines can use today for this brand — well, if anything, the wines just get better. This is a lush, fruit-packed Pinot with sturdy acidity and soft, round tannins for balance. Think dark cherry, raspberry, plum, dark chocolate, cola, vanilla. It’s still young and tightly wound. Grapes are half from Monterey County, half from Santa Barbara.

This is a refreshing sauvignon blanc with crisp acid, herbs and citrus notes. Round. Bright and lively. Impressive.

Very deep, dark red colour with a purple tint; the bouquet dense and complex, with savoury rather than fruity personality, and neither variety showing out obviously. Very full-bodied, concentrated and dense, with fabulous ripe, powdery, fine-grained tannins in abundance. Very mouthfilling with a long, long carry. A wine of wonderful depth, power and texture. (57% cabernet sauvignon, 43% shiraz. 150 cases made).

Lots of dark chocolate aromas, toasty barrels, black fruits and black olive, with some graphite or tar overtones. The palate is rich, profound and dense, very fleshy and supple, the tannins fine-grained and the texture superb. A great shiraz indeed. (1,500 cases made)

A superb wine of great depth and dimension, without any crushed-leaf greener-spectrum cabernet notes or gumleaf-mint. Dark fruits, black olives, earthy and mysterious with lashings of fine-grained tannins, excellent texture and persistence. 

The colour is deep, the bouquet is rich in oak-derived chocolate and vanilla, as well as tamarillo, tomato-bushy aromas. It's fleshy and deep; the softest and most approachable of the 2013 Hickinbotham quartet

This wine comes from one of California’s truly unique vineyards on the Santa Maria bench in Santa Barbara County. Each of 15 different blocks of Chardonnay are farmed individually, allowing nuances of fruit to emerge. Lots are blended to create this inviting wine featuring citrus, white peach and apple with notes of vanilla and spicy oak.

Hint of oak, aromas and flavors of black cherries and milk chocolate, long, smooth finish.

Sweet, soft and plush, this Pinot Noir’s flavors seems to bulge with like pregnant berries. The aromas are enticing, but I found the overgenerous fruit not quite as delicious as I’d hoped. The wine’s structure isn’t completely pulled together, and a more compelling finish would improve the overall impression here.

Smooth and ripe with clean, mellow flavors of apple, pear and tropical fruit; balanced, and lush with vanilla oak and a long finish.