The 2008 Roussanne gives pretty lemon curd and straw aromas with hints of baking bread and cashews. The dry, medium-bodied palate offers a good amount of slightly evolving citrus flabours with racy acidity and a long finish. Delicious now, it should keep to 2014.

Youthfully exuberant, open aromas of black cherry and pomegranate; hint of earth and chalk underneath the ample fruit.

Recommended as a wine to drink while reading An Ideal Wine: One Generation's Pursuit of Perfection - and Profit - in California by David Darlington: This cabernet from its Alexander Valley holdings is...pretty hefty, but delivers its power gracefully.

Wine reviewed in May (see previous entry).

A dramatic wine, authoritative in tannins, bone dry and noble. Withholds its best under a cloak of astringency, but already shows its mountain terroir in the complexity of its structure and deep, intense blackberry, currant, blueberry and dried herb flavors. Should develop bottle complexities for at least a decade and probably longer.

Bright, spicy and sophisticated, this takes a cool, red-fruited approach to the 2008 vintage. There's shape to the wine, the tannins made supple by their time in oak, the wood lending a hint of butterscotch sweetness. The tannins become earthier with air, the wine lean enough to target roast lamb.

A refined, herb-scented cabernet, this is solidly built on earthy tannin. There's a hint of sweetness to the fruit, balancing the earthiness and setting it up for lamb stew.

This is a lovely, elegant Merlot for drinking now and over the next several years. It's dry and smooth, with dusty tannins framing cherry, red currant, herb, olive and cedar flavors.

Like several other KJ Vintner's Reserve reds we've recommended lately, this wine is simple and clean, with saturation of flavor rather than excess weight. It focuses on tart red cherry flavor, almost Bing cherry in its brightness, with a meaty density underneath - the sort of red that's easy to drink with grilled chicken. A super value.

From 50-year-old vineyards in the California hills comes an artisanal and very American wine. Rich, redolent of earth and smoke, baked plums and cassis, it has considerable intensity and structure and, despite the 15.5 per cent ABV, does not feel over-alcoholised.

With rich and lush aromas of butterscotch and caramel apples, this mouth-filling Chard has crisp apple and soft vanilla notes, with a nice bit of acidity for balance. A very pretty wine.