The 2012 Pinot Noir Julia's Vineyard is a pretty, racy wine with plenty of near-term appeal. Crushed flowers, mint and leather notes add nuance in a forward, delicate Pinot with good complexity. The flavors are a bit forward, so the 2012 is best enjoyed sooner rather than later.

Cambria's 2012 Chardonnay Katherine's Vineyard is bold and direct. Apricot pit, smoke and honey notes are laced together nicely in the glass. There is good texture here, even if the aromatics are a bit reduced.

Old World elegance and classicism with New World power in this classic Californian Chardonnay. Wow.

Solid and full-bodied with green apple, vanilla and butter aromas. Very classic and typical of cool climate Californian chardonnay. Yum! Serve robust chardonnays, like this one, slightly less chilled than you would sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio. Finished with fresh baked bread and Californian sunshine.

Lassegue 2005 is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon at 60, 35 and 5 percent respectively. Even at eight years old, the wine has a deep and youthful color. The aroma is also youthful, suggesting fresh cranberry, cherry preserves, and dark plum, with warm notes of baking spices and cocoa. In your mouth, this wine is powerful and yet refined, its every characteristic balanced by an opposing, equally attractive impression. Its fruit character is ripe and rich, for example, and yet the wine has an improbable freshness of acidity. Similarly, the wine’s texture is fleshy and plush and yet the wine shows precision and purity of fruit in its finish. Although the wine’s tannin is considerable, its ripe, fresh fruit balances the tannin effortlessly. Weight, rich texture, ripeness -- and yet delineation, freshness and focus.

Here is a California Sauvignon Blanc that actually tastes like the variety, with green fruit and herbal aromas followed by tangy citrus fruit flavors. Its bright, forward character proves extremely inviting, particularly on warm summer evenings. And with more heft than wines made from the same grape in cooler environs (Marlborough in New Zealand, for example, or France’s eastern Loire Valley), it should be quite versatile at the supper table.

A sweet rendition of what can be a drier and more serious wine, this wine nonetheless proves very enticing, as it exhibits good depth of flavor and fine balance. Drink in with foods that themselves have a touch of sweetness--barbecued chicken, for example.

Complexity, balance and straight-out power; this release of Yangarra's Small Pot Shiraz has it all. I'm sold on this. Second time I've seen it and second time I've loved it. It has all things McLaren Vale Shiraz is renowned for - powerful, blackberried fruit flavour, choc notes, lots of mid-palate grunt - and yet it also comes across as restrained, peppery, balanced and (most importantly) long through the finish. All things to all people, in an uncompromised way.

McLaren Vale mourvedre rides again. Yangarra has a two acre plot of this beautiful grape and while it mostly goes into the GSM blend, some is also bottled as a single variety. At the upper end of medium-bodied. Blackberry, plums, fresh leather, cloves and general woody, dried spice. Silken texture but with some grunt to the tannin. Acidity sits fairly high in the wine, giving it a refreshing aspect. Musky, perfumed, creamy notes through the finish. Quality drop, as they say.

Estate-grown shiraz from rising (if not established) McLaren Vale star, Yangarra. This wine is coming together beautifully. It's a perfumed, expressive shiraz with more than a touch of class. Saturated plum, soy, five spice and smoky, musky oak. There's a gunpowder note here too. It has the flavour, the brightness, the aromatics and the charm. And it has the tannin to see it age well too. Impeccable.

Yesterday, I sat down with Randy Ullom, the affable 'winemaster' at Kendall-Jackson, and tasted ten wines from their portfolio. Some of the entry level wines are currently available at (and imported by) Dan Murphy's, with the higher end of the range looking for distribution. Vineyard here is in the Santa Maria Valley, using clone 5 Chardonnay grown on its own roots. Vine age is around 40 years. Rich, biscuitty, sweet cinnamon spice oak, more to the peach and sweet lime fruit spectrum, though tropical fruit lazes in the mix. Full bodied, burst of flavour, light butter and savoury spice, gentle flintiness and very good length. Bold, but beautiful. Manages to combine larger scale Chardonnay flavour with style and precision. Liked it a lot.

From the cooler Anderson Valley (450m - 540m) region utilising Dijon clones including 828 (36%), which winemaster Randy Ullom tells me the viti guys love, because the bunches stand upright. It immediately put me in mind of Phillip Jones of Bass Phillip fame, who observes a phenomenon he calls 'bunchus erectus' in some of his Pinot vines, and attributes it to bio-dynamics, rightly or wrongly. Candied violets, strawberry and raspberry, light vanilla and spice. Juicy and medium bodied, a fresh tasty wine with light sandy tannin and an attractive chalky finish. Pretty wine that's easy to appreciate, but has complexity and interest too.

Sonoma County here, and I think I was told the grapes come mainly from the Alexander Valley and Knights Valley. Winemaster Randy Ullom says a long cold soak pre-fermentation is a key to the texture of this wine - gentle extraction of tannin using water as the medium, rather than alcohol. Plum, chocolate, gentle spice, light floral notes and vanilla oak. Medium bodied, tobacco savoury flavours in the mix, ripe tannin - a bit of grip here - but nice flow through the mouth with olive and tobacco on the finish. A delight for Merlot fanciers, no doubt.

Winemaster Randy Ullom tells me the grapes come from Mendocino County and the dry grown vines are around 50, 75 and 100 years of age. Currently available at Dan Murphy's. Raspberry, pepper, cinnamon, iron filings, lick of coconut and vanilla, though oak is discreet. Medium bodied, light chalky open weave tannin, even acidity, not sweet - kind of more to Primitivo in style than some Zinfandels - fresh and crunchy on the finish. Floral mouth perfume. Very good. Not trying too hard.

Kendall-Jackson own and manage some 13,000 acres of vineyard. Crikey. This is their more modern style, for those seeking something a little more perky and fresh. Light, fresh, punchy blend of tropical and citrus. Medium weight, spicy and juicy, quite chunky in style with tropical fruit and some savoury flavours in the mix. Some coarseness, freshness of youth, but also a different face of Chardonnay for some consumers. It's pretty good.

Extremely concentrated and full-bodied Californian Chardonnay: toasted almond and butterscotch from generous oak aging. Aromas and flavours of pear, peach and apple.

Most of the grapes for this wine came from the Panorama Vineyard in the foothills of the Arroyo Seco AVA in the Salinas Valley. Winemaker Ivan Giotenov aged the wine briefly in French oak to add earthy and dark-toast elements to this soft and flavorful wine. Look for aromas and flavors of cranberry and plum with notes of baking spice and citrus.

Top-flight producer, Top flight wine. You could almost put any price on this and you'd still be reaching for your credit card. It's perfumed and polished, but rich with dark saturated, complex fruit and oak flavour. Tannin motors away in the background. By any measure this wine falls safely into exceptional territory.

Excellent combination of polish and grunt. Smooth-skinned wine with blackberry, plum and leather flavours laid on, well complemented by more savoury-accented notes of clove and dried spice. Creamy oak makes for a silken ride through the finish. No lack of tannin. Very good release.

A touch of vanilla and whiff of sweet blossoms overlie fairly direct and downright juicy fruit in the nose of this straightforward and comparatively frontal offering, yet, even if showing a slight tilt to candied simplicity, the wine is rounded and very easy to like. It lacks the briskness and acidy bite that a foil to seafood requires, but it will make dandy drinking with chicken dishes galore and goes down quite nicely all on its own.

The rare Zinfandel that favors structure and focus over bold flavors yet doesn't sacrifice a rich and zesty character.

Boldly youthful in color, revealing a whiff of medicinal alcohol as the fruit ages. The flavors have plenty of life, showing ripe cherry, toasted herb, earth and black tea touches.—Blind '94/'04 California Zinfandel retrospective (March 2014). Drink now.

This packs a lot of alcohol, but remains balanced and youthful. Berry cobbler and toasty licorice aromas lead to deep, rich flavors of boysenberry and bitter chocolate.—Blind '94/'04 California Zinfandel retrospective (March 2014). Drink now through 2017.

Retains a dark color and bold aromas of baked blueberry and licorice. The flavors show a touch of age, with hints of black tea and cedar leading to super jammy notes of black cherry and pepper.—Blind '94/'04 California Zinfandel retrospective (March 2014). Drink now through 2016.

Still a solid Zinfandel, showing a touch of age in addition to alcohol. Jammy raspberry and toasted spice aromas lead to flavors of blueberry, black tea and anise.—Blind '94/'04 California Zinfandel retrospective (March 2014). Drink now.