This warm-climate wine is fulsome and hearty in baked Asian pear and candied ginger. A dried-fruit quality stands out on the buxom palate, a buttery taste of dried apricot drizzled in honey and brioche.

Bright ruby-red. Lively aromas of red currant, cherry, tobacco and fresh herbs, with a truffley nuance. Lush, sweet and accessible, with red currant, tobacco, leaf and wood smoke flavors and a light vegetillity. Juicy and nicely delineated.

The 2012 Pinot Noir Haarstad Valley is a bit chunky, but it shows good depth, with more than enough fruit to fill out its broad shoulders. Dark red cherry, plum, spice and new leather inform the finish.

The 2012 Pinot Noir Haarstad Vineyard is composed of the Dijon clone 777 and the Calera clone, which is apparently a suitcase clone from a famous vineyard in Vosne-Romanee. This wine displays lots of dusty, black cherry fruit intermixed with hints of damp earth and Asian soy. Medium-bodied, fresh, earthy and spicy, it should be consumed over the next 5-7 years.

Dense and compact, with firm flavors if dill, currant, anise, and cedary tobacco. Drink now through 2007.

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.

This Merlot, blended with a little Cabernet Sauvignon, is fairly oaky and fairly hot with high alcohol. But it's delicious with flavors of blackberry and cherry jam, milk chocolate and anise. A fine grilled steak will do it justice.

Quite a good wine, dry and firm in tannins, with a certain distinguished elegance. It has pleasant black and red cherry fruit, cola and sandalwood flavors...

Exhibits a sweet bouquet of dried herbs, mocha, and berry fruit as well as an elegant, medium-bodied, soft, supple style that begs for consumption over the next 5-7 years.

The 1999 Sonoma Sauvignon Blanc exhibits aromas and flavors of honeysuckle, citrus, and grapefruit in its light to medium-bodied, refreshing personality. It should be drunk over the next year.

Spot-on in terms of Sauvignon Blanc’s distinctly herbal personality right from the first but with a good bit of fruit keeping it from becoming too stridently weedy, this firmly balanced middleweight is charged with plenty of cleansing acidity and stays in keen focus from front to back, and, if never so stiff and rigid that it cannot be enjoyed on its own, it is a wine that is sure to show at its best when poured with food. 1 star.

Lemon sherbet, lime zest and ruby grapefruit flavors are intense and refreshing, with a crisp finish. 87 points. Very good.

Fermented in both stainless steel and neutral French oak, this is a lightly bodied and balanced white with accents of grassy pea shoot, lemongrass and pineapple. Pithy and lushly layered, it finishes in a rich fistful of wild vanilla. 87 points. Very good.

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.

Light and crisp, with lemon-lime, lemongrass and green apple notes, revealing a whiff of hay and lanolin on the refreshing, lingering finish.

Comprised of multiple clones of Sauvignon Blanc as well as a splash of Semillon for complexity, this wine has only some neutral oak, which is barely evident in the tasting profile. The flavors are strong in lemons, limes, pink grapefruits and sweeter peaches and nectarines, with a strong hint of tart, green gooseberries.

And then there is the widely available version of the “big green” approach delivered in each of the Matanzas Creek bottlings. It is less deep in central fruit yet every bit as given over to dandelion greens and pine bushes as it mates, and its bracing acidity further marks it as a member of the Matanzas Nation. It can handle a bit of cellaring.

Bright, lightly grassy and hinting at both citrus and a touch of fresh melon in the nose, this youthful, insistently fruity offering delivers lots of up-front appeal and keeps varietal character in its sights without being overly herbaceous.

Quite a nice Sauvignon Blanc, although it could be a tad drier on the finish, as there's a jammy, fruit tart quality. Shows crisp acidity framing ripe lemon., lime, green apple, melon and spice flavors.

Aromas of mirabelle, fresh herbs and honeycomb, with a whiff of gooseberry. Juicy and fruit-driven, with good lift to the flavor of candied lemon peel. A bit harsh on the back, though, finishing with elevated alcohol and a note of grapefruit pith.

I tasted two Chardonnays. The 2013 Chardonnay Sonoma is a moderately priced, fragrant style of wine with medium body, only a touch of oak, and a nice buttery, brioche and poached pear component. It should drink nicely for another two years.

The oak is pretty strong on this Chardonnay, dominating the fruit with buttered toast and butterscotch flavors. Still, it has some fat, unctuous tropical fruit and pear flavors that are quite pleasant.

It is a medium-bodied, pleasant white to enjoy over the next 2-3 years.