.displays a dark ruby color, attractive, peppery, cassis aromas, and a light to medium-bodied personality. It is ideal for drinking over the next several years.

A tasty, elegant, medium ruby-colored wine, La Crema's 1997 Zinfandel Reserve offers attractive berry fruit, a round, open-knit texture, and a soft, easy-going finish.

A Burgundian-like, straightforward, cherry and earthy spiciness in both the aromatics and flavors gives this wine a soft, easy-going, charming appeal. Neither deep nor complicated, it is elegant, pleasant, and ready to drink.

.possess good tropical fruit, including some lemon zest and orange rind, medium body, and moderate amounts of new oak. They are well made clean, competent wines that require consumption over the next 1-2 years.

Hits the right notes; clean, correct pear, light oak and spice flavors finish with a crisp edge.

Quite austere, with citrusy, appley, minerally flavors and tart acids. This is not your usual fruit monster, although oak and lees do their best to add nuance and complexity. A good wine that is versatile at the table.

The dark ruby-colored (Pinot Noir) offers a sweet nose of currants, cherries, earth, and spice. This well-textured, fleshy Pinot is best drunk over its first 4-5 years of life.

…smokier, more herbaceous-scented wine, with more depth, body, and tannin…

Dark and intense, with a solid core of tannin, but the plum and wild berry flavors that peek through are appealing. Best to age a little to let this soften somewhat.

The price tag of $14 is not unreasonable for a medium-bodied, soft, slightly peppery and herbal, richly fruity, cherry and berry-scented and flavored wine." This Pinot is meant to be drunk over the next several years.

Vanilla on both nose and palate. Elegant flavors, including more red berry and sweet dried cherry follow through the finish. Perfect now.

From coastal counties between Mendocino and Santa Barbara, a nice, supple wine that has plenty of Pinot character. Don't expect depth or ageability, but this black raspberry-flavored wine has a soft, silky tannins and a spicy finish.

Moderately saturated medium red. Roasted strawberry and loam on the nose. Thick and smoky, with slightly aggressive flavors of roasted cherry and licorice, along with an herbal aspect. Reminded me of a Côtes du Rhône.

Blueberry, black cherry, herb and beef notes firm up in the toasty oak nuances of the modestly tannic finish.

…displays blackberry and cassis notes intermixed with dusty earth tones and pepper. It is soft, fruit-driven, and well-made.

Here's a nice alternative to Cabernet in a full-bodied red wine at this price range. It's completely friendly, from the first taste of cherries and chocolate to the softly gentle texture and all the way through the pleasingly spicy finish.

This tight, black syrah is thick and spicy, with blueberry flavors that drape over the tannins.

...displays a dark ruby color, a spicy, oak-dominated, berry-scented nose, ripe, medium-bodied flavors, and is overall a good, straightforward, competent effort. It should last for 2-3 years.

"Pleasant enough, with ripe sherry, smoky oak and cedar notes, but it tastes tightly wound and finishes with crisp, firm tannins." (Also appeared 6/30/97).

Deep crimson red color. Medium-bodied. Moderately extracted, oaked and tannic. Dried cherries, prune, brown spice. Big spicy nose. Rich baked fruity flavors give way to dry tannins through the finish.

Creamy oak and a hint of cinnamon-like spice overlie lesser themes of red plums and cherries in the mid-density aromas of this correct, but never compelling Merlot...