I tasted four upcoming Pinto Noir releases. My favorite of the four is the Chambolle-Musigny-like 2013 Pinot Noir Jackson Estate Anderson Valley. This wine (3,600 cases) is an excellent value in complex, Burgundian-style Pinot Noir, with notes of raspberries, a hint of blue fruits, forest floor and spice offered in a medium-bodied, lush, elegant, pure style.

Their flagship (and most expensive) Chardonnay is the 2013 Chardonnay Stature. I rarely like this as much as some of the other cuvées. It seems to get more oak (100% barrel-fermented, 100% French oak of which 75% is new) and has a light, more evolved, golden color, more candied citrus, and lots of ripe pear, pineapple and honeysuckle notes. It’s rich, full-bodied, but slightly overdone compared to the other more fresh, but still exuberant and expressive Chardonnays.

The real superstar, if you want to spend a few more dollars, is the 2013 Chardonnay Grand Reserve, which is a blend of 54% Monterey estate fruit with 46% Santa Barbara estate fruit. This is aged in 31% new French oak and a touch of American wood as well, for nine months prior to bottling. The wine shows honeysuckle, brioche, pineapple, mango, and orange notes in a boisterous, exuberant, richly fruity, but pure, medium-bodied style with the oak kicked to the background.

Another outstanding Chardonnay is the 2013 Chardonnay Jackson Estate Piner Hills from a vineyard in the Russian River. This sees 100% French oak, of which 46% is new. This wine, coming from the Goldridge soils has more loamy soil characteristics, honeysuckle, crème brûlée, brioche and orange blossom notes. Some poached pears also make an appearance in this medium to full-bodied, stylish and pure Chardonnay.

A new offering, the 2012 Pinot Noir Marin County comes from that wealthy county on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to Sonoma. Its dark ruby color is followed by notes of forest floor, autumnal vegetation, earth, cloves, black cherries and plums. Elegant, medium-bodied, refreshing and lighter-styled, but intense, it can be drunk over the next 5-6 years.

From an estate vineyard in Anderson Valley, the 2012 Pinot Noir Velvet Sisters was made from Dijon clones 115, 667, 777 and the Pommard selection. This sees about 32% new oak. Abundant notes of blueberries, raspberries and red cherries jump from the glass of this elegant, attractive, medium-bodied effort that resembles a premier cru from the Côte de Beaune. Drink this cleanly made, fresh, impressive offering over the next 7-10 years.

Moving toward their top-of-the-line proprietary reds, Kendall-Jackson’s 2012 Meritage Grand Reserve is 30.7% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28.1% Merlot, 13.9% Cabernet Franc, 13.7% Malbec and 13.6% Petit Verdot, all coming from Sonoma and primarily aged in French oak (28% was new). Licorice, graphite, mulberry and black cherry fruit jump from the glass of this medium-bodied, nicely concentrated wine with sweet tannin and toasty oak in the background.

The 2012 Grand Reserve offers excellent aromatics, including spicebox,black currants and a touch of oak before this medium-bodied,fleshy wine hits the palate. Very good balance, sweet tannin, and plush fruit make for a fairly priced wine to drink now-2023.

This is a delightful Chardonnay that entices at the first sip and continues to hold my interest later. It is not a huge wine but it is complex in flavor and rich in texture. This wine derives from three Chardonnay clones, each grown in a different section of Napa Valley, two of them fairly cool areas. This complexity of terroir and clones brings an array of aromas and flavors to the wine, suggesting citrus, apple, pear, peach, banana and pineapple; partial barrel fermentation (70 percent of the wine), and oak aging (31 percent new oak) for most of the wine, bring notes of spice, vanilla and baked apple. The wine’s texture is creamy, while fresh acidity that has not been softened by malolactic fermentation keeps the wine lively within the creaminess. At $30, I consider this a very good buy.

The 2012 Merlot Alexander Valley, from their famous mountain estate, is aged in 40% new French oak and is a blend of 98.5% Merlot and 1.5% Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine offers up much more espresso bean, chocolaty notes, along with plum, black cherry and roasted herbs. It’s medium-bodied, fleshy and best drunk over the next 8-10 years.

The 2013 Sauvignon Blanc Haarstad Vineyard, which is made with the Loire Valley clones of Sauvignon Blanc known as No. 530 and No. 376 and aged in neutral wood foudres, comes across as a California version of a Sancere or Pouilly Fumé. Crisp, fresh acids, notes of gun flint, lime blossom and melony fruit are all present in this wine with a liquid minerality. This is elegant, rich, yet beautifully precise and fresh. Drink it over the next 2-3 years.

The biggest cuvée is the 20,100 cases of their 2013 Sauvignon Blanc Sonoma, which comes from their estate vineyards in Bennett Valley. This is blended with about 5.5% Sauvignon and has almost 22% of the Musqué Clone, which gives the wine more tropical and exotic characteristics. The wine is dry, delicious, and offers up notes of honeyed figs, exotic melons, fresh acids and crisp lemon blossom with a touch or orange skin. It’s quite refreshing, medium-bodied and beautifully fruited. Drink it over the next several years.

The 2013 Sauvignon Blanc Helena Bench from Sonoma comes from gravelly/clay/loam soils and includes 10% of the Musqué clone. This is aged in stainless steel, neutral 500-liter wood puncheons and concrete eggs. Crisp, fresh acidity, notes of lemon drops, honeyed grapefruit, fig and melons are all present in this fresh, medium-bodied, richly fruity wine that should drink nicely for another 2-3 years.

The 2013 Chardonnay, which comes from the Matanzas Creek vineyards as well as Alexander Valley Vineyards, is made largely from the old Wente clone of Chardonnay, but there is some other clonal material included as well. It shows nice, soil undertones, roasted pineapple, white flowers and peach in a medium to full-bodied, excellent style. It’s delicious and was aged in barrel 10 months prior to bottling.

Even better than the Vintner's Reserve is the 2012 Merlot Grand Reserve, which comes from their estate vineyards in Sonoma. This is a 21,000-case cuvée, and for the extra few dollars, I’d opt for this one. Espresso roast interwoven with blackcurrant and black cherry fruit, forest floor, vanilla and spice jump from the glass of this wine, which is essentially 100% Merlot (in actuality 99.7%, with the rest Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec). About 22% new French oak was used in the upbringing of this wine. It should drink nicely for 7-8 years.

I tasted seven separate Cabernet Sauvignons from Kendall-Jackson. The least expensive wine (now up to $30.00 a bottle, and all from Sonoma) is their 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Vintner’s Reserve. They obviously made a choice to go with higher-quality vineyards that raise the price. This is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon (92.7%, and the rest Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot, Syrah, Tannat and Malbec). Not a lot of new oak is used, although nearly two-thirds of it is French and the rest American. This is probably the best Vintner’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon I’ve ever tasted. Sweet black cherries, blackcurrants, licorice, forest floor and subtle barrique notes are followed by a succulent, fleshy, medium-bodied wine loaded with fruit and velvety tannins. This wine will drink well, and possibly even improve, over the next 8-10 years.

The 2013 Zinfandel Jolene’s Vineyard also comes from head-pruned vines over 100 years of age. It spends 8-9 months in 28% new French oak before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. A potentially outstanding effort, it is somewhat closed and tart acids dominate its raspberry and red and black cherry flavor profile. Medium to full-bodied with heady alcohol, it should drink well between 2015 and 2023.

The 2013 Zinfandel Russian River is a 2,500-case cuvée made from old vine, dry-farmed, head-pruned vineyards averaging over 100 years of age. Aged nine months in French oak, it exhibits lots of strawberry and red currant notes intertwined with notions of earth, charcuterie, meat, pepper and herbs. This complex, delicious 2013 Zinfandel is best drunk over the next 2-4 years.

The 2012 Chardonnay comes from their estate vineyards. It’s 100% barrel-fermented, goes through 100% malolactic fermentation, and was aged primarily in French oak, of which 16% is new. The emphasis is on the melony, lemon-custard, brioche and orange-blossom fruit of Chardonnay, with beautiful freshness, good acidity, and a medium-bodied, nicely concentrated mouthfeel. Drink it over the next 3-4 years.

More grapefruit and mineral-dominated, the 2013 Sauvignon Blanc Aurora Point comes from a high-elevation vineyard planted at 800 to 1,000 feet. This 100% Sauvignon Blanc was fermented in used oak pungeons. It is best drunk over the next 2-3 years.

The 2013 Semillon / Sauvignon Blanc (71% and 29% respectively) from the Terrace Ridge exhibits crisp, elegant, lemon honey and candle wax notes, a creamy texture, medium body, zesty fruit and a long finish. It would be a perfect foil for intensely flavored poultry or seafood dishes if drunk over the next 2-3 years.

The Pinot Noirs are all very open-knit, fruit forward, yet show surprising complexity and finesse. They’re not blockbuster, super-rich Pinot Noirs by any means, made more in a delicate, very graceful style. The 2013 Pinot Noir Anderson Valley shows more blue fruit, cooler raspberries and forest floor. An aromatic style of Pinot Noir with fresh, medium-bodied flavors, it’s also made from Dijon clones and given the same treatment as the Arroyo Seco, with just a slightly higher percentage of new French oak.

The red wines have been an ongoing process of improvement since Matanzas Creek was acquired by Kendall-Jackson. The 2012 Merlot from Sonoma, which comes from the estate vineyards in Jackson Park (legacy vineyards in the Alexander Mountain Estate), reveals crisp, tart acids, a dark ruby color, and white chocolate and berry fruit. It’s very good and represents a blend of 98% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon aged in 30% new French oak.

From a head-pruned, 40-year-old vineyard and aged in concrete eggs, the 2013 Sauvignon Blanc Jensen Vineyard from the Russian River shows steely wet rock and pebble notes that suggest very high levels of minerality in the wine. It exhibits hints of caramelized grapefruit, fresh melons and delicate peach. It is medium-bodied, shows lovely fruit in a straightforward, slightly shorter finish than the bigger cuvée from Sonoma County. This is a very limited availability of only 200 cases.

The 2013 Sauvignon Blanc from Knights Valley, as well as Alexander Valley and Bennett Valley, shows fresh lemon and lime blossoms, a hint of honeysuckle, and caramelized melons. It’s medium-bodied, fresh and was blended with 10% Semillon and aged completely in neutral oak and concrete eggs. Drink it over the next 2-3 years.