Ripe golden color; silky and lush with creamy texture and ripe flavors; smooth, balanced and showing sweet new oak; long and stylish.

Smooth and velvety with ripe plum, cassis and soft herbs; rich, lush and tangy with a long, balanced finish.

Dense and ripe with tangy acidity and bright fruit; rich and balanced, long, fresh and stylish.

Smooth, ripe and lush with black raspberry and blueberry fruit; mellow and rich with spice and good balance; long and stylish. Syrah, Merlot, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel.

A seamless pinot noir with layered flavors of raspberry, cherry, herbs and cracked black pepper. Nice minerality. Lingering finish.

Lokoya's 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is another striking wine from Chris Carpenter. Mocha, plums and cassis wrap around the palate in a gorgeous, inky Cabernet endowed with gorgeous textural depth and pure volume. Layers of flavor build in the glass in a rich, sumptuous wine endowed with superb depth. The fruit is so rich there is almost no sensation of mountain tannin, which is highly unusual for Howell Mountain, especially in 2011. A deep, plush finish laced with pencil shavings, graphite, plums and smoke leaves a lasting impression. I imagine the 2011 will enjoy a long and broad drinking window once the tannins start to soften.

Drawn from the Anderson Valley, an area of Mendocino County that can be even cooler than Sonoma, this pinot bursts with red fruit on both the nose and palate. Zesty, fresh and straightforward, it shows strawberry and cranberry flavors coupled with cedar wood and just the right hint of earthiness. It's one of those incredible lightness of being pinots that sometimes makes you re-evaluate exactly what pinot should be.

Only 1,200 cases of this one to go around, this site-specific pinot displays red fruits, mostly strawberry on the nose with (paradoxically) light flowers and darker licorice. On the palate, red cherry and strawberry meet up with blackberry, dark chocolate and a sense of seasoning from the minerality. Well-focused and well-defined, it has a big flavor impact hitting midpalate that extends to the finish.

Picked from two very specific vineyard blocks, this pinot sports strawberry, cherry and rhubarb aromatics along with plenty of barrel toast and spice. Very concentrated in style, the flavors begin with dark black cherry, tobacco and blackstrap molasses with moist earth and wood spice in the background. Perhaps at its peak of drinking right now, it's very different from the rest of La Crema's pinot, but I would drink this in a heartbeat, especially with food.

It was interesting to find an older vintage in my cellar, back in the days when Melissa Stackhouse was the winemaker, to see how La Crema ages. Red cherry, red raspberry, red Jell-0 shots on the nose along with cinnamon, incense and a hint of decaying leaves after the rain. Dark and concentrated red cherry and raspberry fruit flavors comingle effortlessly with some darker fruit flavors to provide another level to the wine. At 4 years old, it's just starting to open up and hit its stride. It's not big nor incredibly rich, but it nevertheless is not shy about putting all its charms on display at once.

The entry-level chardonnay shows lemon oil and yellow apple along with a dollop of butterscotch on the nose. Dense, though not ponderous, with flavors of apple, lemon curd and vanilla custard/yogurt plus hints of pineapple and mango, it's also rich and creamy. Fresh, concentrated and layered, it's supple and entertaining with a sweet spot on midpalate that makes a lengthy and clean impact on the finish that has a hint of wood spice at the very end.

The Los Carneros version steps it up with about a quarter new French oak barrels in the mix. Plenty of stone fruit like peach and nectarine on the nose and palate with a little thread of vanilla and spice that doesn't draw attention to itself. The flavors fill the mouth well in a leaner (but not meaner) style. Pinpoint acidity helps keep all the flavors in check and the balance is impeccable.

Limited to, as the name suggests, only nine of the best barrels in the winery (that's 225 cases), this chardonnay is full-blown and the antithesis of the Los Carneros. It pops its aromatics right out of the glass with rich creamery butter and buttered popcorn layers over lemon citrus and a little pineapple. Rich and full-bodied, it leads with green apple, pear and stone fruit on the palate as well as baked apple pie spice and vanilla. All the flavors are quite well delineated, showing good texture on midpalate and good length on the finish as the butter and spice hits a high note with the stone fruit.

A mix of syrah, merlot, petit sirah and zinfandel that's a real crowd-pleaser for its plush, abundant dark-red fruit flavors and aromas, smooth texture and clean finish; also a benefit bottling for Operation Homefront to aid families of U.S. military and the military wounded; taste good and do good.

Clean and subdued but never less than specific in its relatively pert, red-cherry fruit and showing a light touch of sweet oak in support, Cambria’s mild-mannered Pinot may be a bit smaller in scale, but it is a nicely balanced, well-defined, very user-friendly wine all the same, and it invites unceremonious drinking in the comparatively near-term.

The latter wine's eminently quaffable companion, the 86-point Kendall-Jackson Avant California will appeal to those looking for a lighter but still fruity version...

Chardonnay...and the very likeable, keenly fruited one star Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve California 2012.

Amazingly rich and voluptuous, this shows none of the rustic edges that can sometimes plague Malbec. It's concentrated in blackberry jam and black currant flavors, with a jacket of smoky oak. The alcohol is high, but not overbearing. This really asserts itself with the customary power and authority of a great Mount Veeder red. Wonderful now, but should continue to develop for at least 10-15 years.

The leader of an impressive trio from Matanzas Creek, it does the best of the three in integrating deep fruit and unrepentantly pushy varietal character whose pungent juniper and weed focus finds favor in some quarters and disappointments in others. That said, this one is full of fruit citrus and melon fruit, high in pert, bracing character and long on the palate in an entirely convincing manner. We would not be surprised to see it grow in interest and layered complexity for many years to come.

Carpenter makes this wine at the vineyard formerly known as Chateau Potelle, the vines rising above the fog line from 1,400 to 1,800 feet. It has the freshness and concentration of a wine grown at altitude in thin, rocky soils, the grip of its mountain tannins resolving to soft velvet as the wine takes on air. Rich scents of blackberries and black pepper give it depth and brightness, like a steak seared black and blue.

Deep ruby color; deep, tight dark cherry aromas; big, deep and rich dark cherry flavors with some oak and tannin; earthy and pepper notes; good structure and balance; long finish. Big and deep Pinot that needs time to open up.

The stems that were included in the fermentation give this wine a full-bodied, tannic mouthfeel, as well as adding to the spices. With raspberry, cherry and mocha flavors, it’s a powerful Pinot that wants two or three years in the cellar.

Medium-deep ruby color; rich cherry aromas with spice and orange peel notes; deep, rich, ripe herbal cherry flavors with toasty notes; silky texture; good structure and balance; long finish. Soft, forward Pinot with subtle flavors.

This Chardonnay carries a lot of oak, while underneath the fruit is charming, open and sufficiently edgy, with flavors of dried pineapple and lime. It has a structural grip that suggests more than oak is in play - something rocky and mineral, perhaps contributed by Cambria's extensive holdings of deep-rooted vines from the 1970's and '80's.

Luscious cherry pie, blackberry jam, cola, sweet cinnamon toast and sandalwood flavors characterize this dark, soft, dry Pinot Noir. The wine is a barrel selection that has more intensity than others, in the words of winemaker Jonathan Nagy. It truly is a big wine, with the weight of Grenache. With Pinot’s noble structure, it’s drinking well now.