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...

A warm, fleshy pinot noir, this has super ripe flavors of blackberry jam and orange bitters. The warmth brings up a rasp in the tannin suited to prime rib.

Sporting a mix of both ripe and tart cherries in its aromas, and following up with like-minded flavors of medium density, this slightly low-keyed wine wants for a bit of panache, but it hits the varietal mark in terms of both fruit and balance. It tends a little to back-palate dryness, but it will provide useful drinking over the next two or three years.

This marriage of Central Coast fruit adds up to a rounded, amicable and impeccably clean wine that goes right to the varietal point with its ripe-apple aromas and like-minded flavors. It is never an especially complex wine, and it reveals little in the way of real layering, but it is an open and easy-to-taste one that hangs on to its fruit to the end.

Moderate reddish-purple color in the glass. Nicely perfumed with an array of fresh berries. Brisk and juicy with a middle-weighted core of cherry and berry fruits, with a hint of cola, oak and citrus in the background. Soft with silky tannins. A sold daily drinker at a reasonable price.

Moderately dark reddish-purple color in the glass. Enticing aromas of dark raspberries and blackberries, black cherries, kirsch, brioche and oak. Discreetly concentrated flavors of chocolate-covered, perfectly ripe cherries, and fresh blackberry jam. The vivid fruit is nicely caressed by fine-grain tannins, the oak is beautifully integrated, and there is impressive aromatic persistence on the fruit-filled finish.

Moderate reddish-purple color in the glass. Intensely fruity nose initially displaying aromas of fruit bin and mixed berries including strawberries with a hint of vanilla fading over time in the glass. An array of tasty ripe berries is accented by a note of dark chocolate with a grip of citrus peel on the finish. Welcoming fruit intensity coats the palate and persists on the finish, but offers no nuance or intrigue. Smooth and harmonious.

They make some really good booze at Yangarra. This one’s a beauty. Ripe, luscious, leathery, earthen, minerally and laden with oodles of chocolatey, plummy, tarry fruit. There’s a sure slip of creamy, toasty oak here too but the fruit has it well and truly covered. Exquisite tannin. Adorable drinking.

This full-bodied merlot has a seamless texture and layered flavors. Notes of blackberry, herbs and pepper. Lingering finish.

This new K-J Chard was created in a crisp, fruit-driven style. Half of the wine if fermented in steel tanks, while the other half goes into neutral barrels. That's just enough oak contact to give the wine roundness without obscuring the fruit. The wine has aromas of green apples and pears, along with tropical fruit and lemon flavors.

This ultra-pale wine has aromas of fresh citrus and melon, with flavors to match. It's crisp and tangy, with a nice balance of fruit and acidity and a bit of tartness at the finish.

With aromas of green apple and melon, this well-balanced SB is crisp and clean, with grapefruit flavor and appealing mineral notes.

This is Cabernet Sauvignon lifted to greatness, an impeccable statement concerning this region of the high Mayacamas Mountains on the Sonoma side that, by law, is forced to bear a valley appellation. The wine is awesome, vast and complex, fascinating in every aspect, yet locked down in tough tannins that exaggerate the acidity, making the wine functionally undrinkable. It is a beautiful, classic Cabernet, very near perfect, and certainly one of the successes of the vintage. Don't even think of drinking it before 2014, and it should evolve in the bottle for a good 10 years after that.

Massive essence of Cabernet Sauvignon, a triumph. Shows huge waves of blackberries, black currants and cassis, dark chocolate, earthy minerals and considerable oak, which is tasteful and unobtrusive, With its dryness and perfect balance, it will easily negotiate the years. Should be fine well past the year 2020.

Pretty much as good as any Cabernet out there, if not better, and at a fraction of the price you'll pay for the cults. If there was ever a wine made for the cellar, it's this one, the antidote for those who consider California Cabernet a simple fruit bomb. Completely dry, with exquisite tannins, its blackberry, currant, red licorice and oak-inspired flavors are massive and classic. Hard to exaggerate how good this fine wine is. Drink 2013-2020 and beyond.

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.

Grown in a portion of the winery's considerable holdings in the high Mayacamas range, this Cabernet is ridiculously rich and flamboyant in black currant flavors, wrapped into the ripest, densest, sweetest tannins imaginable. Exceptionally vibrant, intense and compact, it will develop bottle complexity for a good 15 years.

(74% cabernet franc, 13% merlot, 9% cabernet sauvignon and 4% malbec): Bright, deep ruby. Blackberry and violet aromas are lifted by powerful minerality. Juicy but youthfully imploded, with great verve and intensity to the flavors of black fruits, brown spices and licorice pastille. A wine of outstanding lift and mineral clarity. Finishes with noble toothdusting tannins, great persistence and the structure for two or three decades of development in bottle. These Verite wines boast a sophistication of texture rarely found in California's reds. I'd love to try this wine in a blind tasting alongside top St. Emilions from a great ripe year.

(86% merlot, 9% cabernet franc and 5% malbec): Bright, deep ruby. Knockout nose combines black raspberry, bitter chocolate, violet and orange zest. Otherworldly merlot, boasting great clarity and intensity and an utterly seamless texture. Strong acidity (the pH is 3.63, the lowest of the three Verite 2009s) frames the wine's flavors and accentuates its classical dryness. Finishes with noble tannins, great palate-staining length and floral lift. High class!

Very rich, ripe and complex, showing a near-perfect display of flavors and textures. The riper blackberries and black cherries have a chewy, meaty edge, with notes of cola and bacon. Very fine tannins and acidity suggest midterm to longterm aging, but it's a splendid sipper now. Should develop through 2018, at least.

It has a dense, complex core of blackberries, coated with immaculately fine, sweet oak. Feels important and dramatic, but too young. Begs to be housed in a good cellar for a good eight years.

(77% cabernet sauvignon, 9% each merlot and cabernet franc, 3% petit verdot and 2% malbec): Bright deep ruby. Nuanced nose offers black cherry, licorice, minerals and bitter chocolate. Dense black fruit flavors showcase the wine's explosive cabernet sauvignon element yet also convey a sense of medicinal reserve. The outstanding rising finish features noble, building tannins. Extremely suave wine in the making.

Very pale yellow. Captivating nose combines exotic apricot, white plum, crushed rock, brown spices and a lavender high note. Intense and tactile on entry, then tightly coiled and penetrating in the middle, a step up over the foregoing wines in its impression of acid spine. Very powerful, youthfully aggressive, palate-staining wine that will need time in bottle to open and expand. Less thick and sweet at the same stage than the 2008, but at the same time more glycerol than the 2009 Gravel Bench. A great example of a California chardonnay, by which I mean that I would not mistake it for Burgundy in a blind tasting.

Lots going on in this mountain-grown wine. It's perfectly dry and strong in tannins, with an elusive quality of excellence that testifies to the best terroir. Showing blackberry, black cherry, mineral and oak flavors, it should develop bottle complexity for at least the next decade.

(from vines at an elevation of 1,500 feet): Bright yellow. Complex, vibrant aromas of musky lemon-lime, minerals, iodine, hazelnut oil and oak char lifted by a note of lavender; I would have picked this blind as Burgundy. Suave on entry, then juicy, peachy and uncompromisingly dry without being austere. This broad, airy wine finishes very suave and light on its feet, with a lovely touch of sweetness and a whiplash of brisk pineapple. Like something from the Puligny/Meursault border.