Cherry jam, barnyard, spicy, soy, celery, vanilla, cardamom, prune plum aromas. Ripe, round, rich, supple palate with good acidity balance. Smoky, spicy, savoury, celery salt, carrot, orange, cherry jam, plum and vanilla flavours with some tea leaf notes. A bit warm but there is delicious fruit and textures for current drinking. The biggest change here is the finesse and elegance this wine is developing as the vines age. The nose is ripe with bits of celery salt and soya and red fruit aromas mixed with dried herbs. The mid-palate is silky smooth and soft with delicious earthy, strawberry, spicy fruit flavours. It's still aged 10 months in 100 percent French oak but the new oak in the '07 edition is down to 43 percent that seems to be helping this pinot show better richness and complexity.

Doesn't have quite the sheer ravishing power of the winery's Trace Ridge Cabernet, but this Cab-based Bordeaux blend is nuanced and possibly more complex and Bordeaux-like. The flavors are of currants, blackberries, cherries, anise and cedar, aged in 78% new French oak.

Very savoury, celery salt, spicy, incense, plum, black cherry, great tea aromas. Rich, ripe, round, supple but very full palate, almost sweet. Tea leaf, spicy, celery salt, vanilla, raspberry, black cherry, light coffee, tobacco leaf and dried herb flavours.

Serious Cabernet, rich and complex and full bodied, made from Knights Valley and Alexander Valley fruit, with a few grapes from Atlas Peak and Mount Veeder. Dense and tannic now, but high toned, with waves of black currants, black cherries and oak. A good price for a Cabernet of this quality.

This wine's elegance is apparent when it's first poured, though the earthy fruit flavors remain elusive. A day of air brings its black currant brightness to the foreground, juicy and firm. Suited to a few years of age, this will smooth any grizzled edges off a grilled butterflied leg of lamb.

Smooth and spicy, a generous mouthful of pear, floral and lychee flavors wrapped in a polished frame. Drink now.

Clear to platinum in color, this wine has the scent of green-apple skin, a tight jacket surrounding plump fruit flavors. The fruit has the weight and gravity of a peach ready to fall from the tree - fully ripe rather than superripe. The acidity in the finish will wrap around grilled sea scallops.

A great representative of Australian Grenache, with flavors of black fruit, road tar and raspberry liqueur fading to a palate of brambly fruit, all of which is couched in mocha and vanilla tones from toasty French oak. There's a bit of raspberry jam and a faint grip on the medium finish. Drink now.

Bright and lush with racy acidity and ripe blackberry fruit and clean; tangy finish; long, dense and charming.

Medium ruby color, spicy red cherry aromas with some berry notes; rich, ripe berry and red cherry flavors, some oak and earthy notes; some tannin; good structure and balance; long finish. Earthy Pinot that's medium bodied and a good match for a dish featuring mushrooms.

A juicy, fruity Merlot, packed with fresh flavors of blackberries, cherries, red currants, licorice and cedar, and totally dry on the finish. The tannins are very fine. Shows lots of lush complexity for the price.

To be sure, this bottling is a worthy member in the K-J array with its aromas and flavors of ripe apple fruit and its buttered toast character.

Supple and peppery, with a spicy feel to the soft cherry and plum flavors, lingering easily. Drink now through 2013.

A solid Cabernet, dry and full bodied, that shows the structure and flavors of more expensive bottlings. Rich in blackberries, currants and cedar, with hints of coffee and toffee and a touch of new oak.

A Meritage-style blend based mainly on Cabernet and Merlot, grown in Mendocino, Sonoma and Napa counties. Slightly rustic in tannic structure, it has sleek flavors of berries, currants, charred oak and spices. A pretty good value for this sweetly charming wine.

Chocolate, red and black fruits and black olives with a floral lift – lavender and flowering basil perhaps. It’s firm and savoury, rather than sweet, with excellent shape and a lovely dry finish. Drinks beautifully and has a drier, more Euro food friendly feel than many locals. Impressed.

Not many producers are making pinot blanc because of its similarity to chardonnay, but done well it is a delightful grape variety for spring and summer consumption. This one is done well: lots of citrus and peach notes with crisp acidity.

Clean and varietal, with no filler grapes blended in to boost the color. Barrel-aged.

Smooth and supple, from cooler sites in California, with a mix of apple, pear, lemon and vanilla.

This staple of the Jackson Family Wines portfolio did well with its '08. Aged mostly in older oak, it's a brimming bowl of ripe fruit, slightly tropical and banana, and giving off peach and Meyer lemon as well. Clean and unflashy in its style, it finishes with a punch of tangy citrus.

Blackberry and black coffee aromas and flavors, full-bodied, rich and smooth, long finish.

Full ruby-red. Knockout nose melds musky brown spices, iron, flowers and smoked meat, along with an exotic suggestion of white fruits. Broad, ripe and classically dry, with a palate-coating texture like liquid velvet. Strong underlying minerality gives energy and definition to this compellingly rich and pliant wine. The extremely long finish shows an exhilarating building sweetness and noble tannins.

Bright ruby-red. Crushed blueberry, violet, licorice and dark chocolate on the explosive nose. Not quite as complex as La Muse but sweeter in the mid-palate, without any loss of definition or energy. Finishes with superb broad tannins and outstanding pulsating persistence.

Good deep red-ruby. Complex aromas of cherry, plum, musky brown spices, licorice and menthol lifted by a floral topnote. Quite dry and youthfully imploded initially, then opened to show a creamy sweetness and growing pliancy to its red fruit and mineral flavors. This has firmed up since I saw it in barrel a year ago, while La Joie has become more harmonious. The most tannic of this outstanding trio of 2007s today, with the structure for a long and positive evolution in bottle.

Pale, bright straw-yellow. Expressive aromas of nectarine, brown spices and crushed rock. Dense, thick and sweet, with seriously chewy, complex flavors of lemon zest, orange, minerals and spices. Finishes very broad and very long, with an echoing stony character. Despite its sweet fruit, this mineral-driven wine strikes me as less exotic in character than the outstanding vintages made by Marcassin in the '90s.