Smooth and easy-drinking, with fleshy peach and baked apple notes.

Smooth ripe and round; balanced, fresh and long.

Good pale color. Intriguing aromas of pear, stone fruit, ginger, nutmeg and wet stone. Lively, enticingly sweet flavors of pear and apple. Finishes dry, juicy and persistent.

Good full red. Perfumed aromas of red cherry, raspberry, cola, minerals and rose water. Juicy, lively and firm-edged, with bright red berry flavors of moderate complexity. Finishes a tad tart but not dry. From mostly estate fruit.

Medium red. Spicy raspberry, red cherry, cola and sassafras aromas, with a floral nuance and a slightly roasted quality. Supple, attractive red fruit flavors offer moderate complexity but lovely pinot sweetness.

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.

Hartford's 2011 Zinfandel has lovely balance and inner perfume. Dark red cherries, plums, tobacco and new leather burst from the glass in an expressive, nuanced wine best suited for drinking over the next few years. This is a serious, entry-level offering. Anticipated maturity: 2013-2019.

A solid Zin from a tough vintage. Aromas of boysenberry, herb and mineral lead to plum, dill and anise flavors. A combination of firm acidity and tannins tightens the finish.

Big, broad and gutsy with a wealth of very ripe, well-extracted, dark-berry fruit, this powerful wine is at once fairly thick on the palate and comes with a fair streak of finishing heat. That said, it is so rich that it manages to make the style work, but it carries the warning that it will in all likelihood overwhelm all but the most flavorful foods.

Bright medium ruby-red. Brooding aromas of raspberry, licorice and cinnamon. Fat, sweet and expressive but with obviously elevated alcohol. The strong, sweet berry fruit flavors are joined by cinnamon oil and mace on the rather exotic back end.

Still young and sleek, with toasted baked cherry aromas and super ripe flavors that show alcohol, plus boysenberry, grilled anise and pepper notes.—Blind '94/'04 California Zinfandel retrospective (March 2014). Drink now.

Moderate reddish purple color in the glass. Robust aromas of black cherry, cardamom spice and sweet oak. Lovely core of black cherry and black raspberry fruits overlain with oak-driven accents of black tea, char and tobacco, and framed by gently firm tannins. The finish is attenuated. When tasted the following day from a previously opened and re-corked bottle, drying oak still dominated the aromas and flavors. Time will integrate some of the oak overlay but this will always be a well-oaked wine.

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.

Made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc, 16% of the 2013 Sauvignon Blanc Equitem was fermented in new and old French oak pungeons, and the rest split between neutral French oak and stainless steel. This is a steely, Bordeaux-styled Sauvignon offering notes of grapefruit, lemon and lime blossom, a hint of licorice and attractive minerality underlying the medium-bodied flavors. Drink this dry, crisp, zesty white over the next several years.

I tasted two Merlots from Freemark Abbey. The 2013 Merlot Napa, which comes from multiple sources, is their biggest cuvée (89.1% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec aged almost 16 months in oak). A deep ruby color, with notes of mocha, white chocolate, black cherry and dried herbs, the wine is medium-bodied, shows loads of supple, lush fruit, easygoing soft tannin and a round juiciness. Isn’t this exactly what buyers of Merlot are looking for? Drink it over the next 7-8 years.

The 2009 Merlot is an attractive, mid-weight red laced with sweet berries, flowers, spices and licorice. This pretty, understated wine is best enjoyed sooner rather than later, while the fruit retains its juiciness. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2015.

A full complement of ripe cherry fruit with hints of black cherries and dried berries are joined by a light veneer of creamy oak in the nose of this full and slightly fleshy wine. Fairly open in feel and invitingly ready to enjoy over the next few years, the wine relies on bags of youthful energy for balance.

This sports a pronounced, lively chaparral and savory edge that surrounds a core of pomegranate and blood orange fruit flavors. Light, racy finish. Drink now through 2025. 23,466 cases made.

Good ruby-red. Distinctly rustic if not downright unclean aromas of crystallized dark fruits, meat, leather and herbs. Silkier and sweeter in the mouth, but with some funky notes of leather and smoked meat to go with the red berries and tobacco. The heavy-toast barrels sweeten the wine. Finishes firmly tannic and persistent , with wild leather and meat flavors. Has personality but not recommended for the fainthearted.

Characteristics of crushed minerals, forest floor, sweet black currants, and toast emerge from this wine. It possesses medium body, austere tannin, and a certain hardness in its Bordeaux-like character. This 1999 should age for 15+ years, but whether it will ever become charming or expansive is questionable.

Brooding aromas of cassis and licorice, with a suggestion of cedar. Quite tight and backward in the mouth, in a distinctly drier style than the Bosche. Finishes with substantial tannins and a repeating note of cedar. Sycamore Vineyard is a cooler site featuring more clay, normally producing smaller berries rich in extract.

Saturated ruby. Aromas of blackberry, cassis, licorice, graphite, bitter chocolate and smoky oak. Juicy minerality and firmly built, with lively acids leavening its sweetness. But this has excellent flavor intensity, and the dusty tannins avoid dryness.

Deep ruby-red. High-pinched but reticent aromas of dark berries and licorice. Sweet but firm on the palate, with a minerally graphite quality.

Good medium ruby. Slightly medicinal aromas of black cherry, black raspberry and licorice. Juicy, dry-edged flavors of briary mountain berries, leather and dark chocolate. Finishes quite firm and perhaps a bit hardened by SO2, with some hard tannins. This bottling is increasingly being sourced from mountain vineyards, noted Jess Jackson.

from a 2,000 foot altitude vineyard in cool Mendocino. Dense purple-colored, with sweet blue and black fruits intermixed with a touch of licorice as well as toast, this medium-bodied, fruit driven Merlot reveals surprising length in addition to a deep mid-palate. It should drink well young, yet keep for a decade.