Perfect Pinot Noirs for your Holiday Table Winemaker’s Note: Aromas of tea leaf, violets and spiced cranberry. A fresh attack of raspberry and red cherry give way to a structured mid-palate of tobacco, sweet umami and dark fruit.

Perfect Pinot Noirs for your Holiday Table Winemaker’s Note: The wine shows its cool-climate origins in bright acidity, accenting the rich flavors of wild strawberries, black cherries and plum. Firm minerality grounds the wine. The tannins are firm, yet with silkiness on the finish, while oak barrel aging brings a smoky, sandalwood note.

Perfect Pinot Noirs for your Holiday Table Wine Spectator: A chiseled red, with notes of underbrush to the dried raspberry and red currant flavors that feature accents of persimmon and pomegranate. Cardamom details show on the finish. Drink now through 2022.

Perfect Pinot Noirs for your Holiday Table Winemaker’s Note: The Nielson Vineyard’s location at the warmer, eastern end of the Santa Maria Valley accounts for the wine’s dark color and ripe flavor profile. Prior to fermentation, the Pinot Noir clusters were 100% de-stemmed and kept cold for 5 days to accentuate the naturally smooth texture of our estate grown fruit. Rose petal and dark cherry with hints of graphite and green tea.

Perfect Pinot Noirs for your Holiday Table Winemaker’s Note: Ripe blackberry and blueberry flavors are followed by notes of cranberry, cherry and pomegranate. With a balance of earth and baking spice, this wine offers firm tannins and a long finish.

Winespeed's Wine of the Year 2019 It’s been a phenomenal year. Over the course of 52 editions of WineSpeed, we tasted thousands of wines. And so many wines stood out—a phenomenal 2017 Vintage Port (Dow’s), a luscious shiraz (Penfold’s St. Henri), a superb Napa cabernet franc (Detert), and, as an eye-opening surprise, a fantastic pinot noir from Patagonia, Argentina (Chacra). Plus many more. But one wine really galvanized us. For its sheer deliciousness; for its superb tension between minerality and richness; for being emblematic of the surging success of an entire region; and for costing less than $50 a bottle when so many great wines cost more than $100, we’ve chosen: GRAN MORAINE Chardonnay 2016 from the Yamhill Carlton district of the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

Pop a cork or two for Christmas Deliciously good, lush, wine made by good people with good intentions.

Top scoring wines of 2019: 100 points The wines tasted in 2019 that received a perfect score from our experts…

Wine Guy: California red wine beyond cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir, merlot or zinfandel Bootleg is a newer label associated with Jackson Family Wines. Crafted with Sonoma County fruit, this is bold and concentrated, luscious with velvety tannins and drinks with a sense of richness and opulence.

Let’s Talk Wine: A white Christmas Lush with good acidity this Chardonnay wine has citrus style aromas and lush flavors of pear, vanilla and almond butter.

Let’s Talk Wine: A white Christmas Bright citrus flavors and aromas of poached pear, lemon curd, baking spices with notes of orange blossom finish fresh and crisp.

Let’s Talk Wine: A white Christmas Clean and crisp with aromas of citrus and peach followed by green apple flavors.

The 2012 Bosché is just plain delicious: rich, balanced and full of complex flavors around a core of red and black fruits.

The “stone temple” at the corner of Highway 29 and Lodi Lane in the Napa Valley is the historic Freemark Abbey Winery. During my early wine years in the 1970s, the winery was venerated for great wines and an indomitable spirit. It was the only winery to have both a Chardonnay and Cabernet included in Steven Spurrier’s 1976 Judgement of Paris tastings. Drink this wine for its rich and spicy aromas, black fruits and toasty oak, and for its structure and balance on the palate.

2012 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (75.5 percent cabernet sauvignon, 16.6 percent merlot, 3.3 percent cabernet franc, 2.6 percent petit verdot, 2 percent malbec): hint of oak, aromas and opulent flavors of black plums, bittersweet chocolate and spice, long, smooth finish.

It is a common lament that good Cabernet Sauvignon has gotten so expensive that it is becoming a wine for special occasions rather than regular drinking, but there are always good buys to be found, some of which happily defy expectations. The previously recommended **(two-star) FREEMARK ABBEY Napa Valley 2012 continues to rank high on our roster of favorites and is a serious effort that stands with collectable, cellarworthy Cabernets costing a great deal more…

There is certainly no shortage of good Cabernet Sauvignon these days, and the best can come fairly dear, but the outstanding **FREEMARK ABBEY Napa Valley 2012 outperforms a great many costing two and three times as much and reminds that affordable, highly collectable Cabernet still has not disappeared.

Winemaker Ted Edwards says this wine – and a pricey Rutherford cabernet -- are among the best he's ever made. No doubt, they have guts and glory. Well balanced and integrated, this blend of Bordeaux varietals has bright berry flavors and a dash of truffles and mocha.

This storied 125-year-old Napa valley winery can still produce terrific wines. This example is a classic Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon and is a blend of all five Bordeaux varietals, with cherry and cassis nose and flavors. Firm tannins, but approachable now, this beauty can easily age a decade if stored properly.

Winemaker Ted Edwards says this wine — and a pricey Rutherford cabernet — are among the best he's ever made. No doubt, the wines have guts and glory. Well balanced and integrated, this blend of Bordeaux varietals has bright berry flavors and a dash of truffles and mocha.

Don't underestimate the body of this rich, fruit-forward cabernet from Napa Valley. Using all the Bordeaux grape varieties, the blend packs firm tannins and layered dark berry fruit. Hints of cedar, black pepper and chocolate.

Ted Edwards, director of winemaking, said it took all of his 30 years of winemaking at Freemark Abbey and his history of working with the vineyards to make the 2011, produced in the most difficult California vintage in memory. And if you give this still-young wine time to get oxygen in your glass, you will see he really pulled this one off. It's rich, layered with flavors and complexity, nicely infused with smoky, spicy oak and framed in supple tannins and firm acidity. You get the sensation of bright red berries, plums, dark cooking spices, cedar. It's full-bodied and opulent. It's produced off the historic Bosché Vineyard in Rutherford and Veeder Peak on the ridges of Mount Veeder.

One of the more traditional interpretations of the day, its color deep, its flavors ripe and distinctly cherry, its texture pushing the envelope of grittiness, and its oak generous without being overwhelming. In contrast to others, however, its aroma had a surprisingly floral attribute.

Trim and tannic, with austere dried berry, currant and cedar notes, gaining depth and ending with a crushed rock minerality.

This is a soft beauty that charms the nose and palate with its dark cherry, plum, blackberry personality infused with brown cooking spices — cinnamon and clove — from the French oak barrels. Almost half the barrels are new – which might be overpowering for some wines but not this fruit. It’s made off famous Napa real estate — Bosche Vineyard in Rutherford, mountain fruit from Potelle Vineyard and Veeder Peak, Stage Coach and Round Pond vineyards. No wonder this baby is so rich, smooth, powerful and approachable.