The all-stainless steel fermented and aged 2008 Chardonnay Liberated is outstanding. Notes of lemon custard, honeyed citrus, and white currants jump from the glass of this medium to full-bodied, light straw-colored wine. Elegant, pure, and impressively textured, this is a Chardonnay to drink over the next 1-2 years.

I was also impressed with Carmel Road's 2008 Chardonnay Monterey. With a light greenish hue to its color and loads of tropical fruit intermixed with a hint of orange blossom, this medium-bodied Chardonnay is not as weighty as the Arroyo Seco, but it's tasty in a medium-bodied, fresh, lively, cool-climate style.

Better is the 2007 Pinot Noir Arroyo Seco. Obviously a cool-climate wine, with elegant strawberry and raspberry as well as hints of blueberry and underbrush notes, this Pinot is attractive, medium-bodied, and slightly lean in the finish. Carmel Road has also produced two other super Pinot Noirs.

A straightforward, one-dimensional, medium-bodied Pinot Noir, the 2008 Monterey displays some spiciness, dark berries, and soil undertones...

This is a good, casual merlot with aromas and flavors of black cherry, plum, herbs and spice. Nice texture. Good length.

Winemaker Randy Ullom hits all the right notes with this delicious floral, spicy, green apple, peachy melon nose flecked with guava, vanilla, light lychee, lime and a dusting of nutty lees. The palate is fresh and crisp with elegant styling, juicy acidity and rich minerality. Baked green apple, floral, spicy, mango, pineapple, honey, buttery, vanilla, nutty, lime and melon flavours. Good complexity and balance in a brighter style than in the past. Drink now or over the next few years. This wine really deserves a better name than 'Grand Reserve.'

Smoky, peppery, cedar, chocolate, tobacco, roasted meat, licorice root, earthy, cassis, and menthol aromas. Ripe, round, supple, elegant palate with light, dry tannins. Cassis, chocolate, vanilla, peppery, black olive, green bean, meat, tobacco, mineral, licorice, earthy, tea flavours. Somewhat tight, austere finish that should soften over the next few years.

Spicy, peppery, black cherry, light coffee, tobacco, black olive, vanilla, barnyard aromas with a touch of plum, orange and carrot top. Round, dry, supple, fresh palate with light tannins. Cherry, tart plum, chocolate, peppery, cedar, tobacco, orange, meaty, licorice root flavours. Good finesse and fruit but with a bit of a tart note on the finish.

Spicy, melon, floral, butter, vanilla, mango, guava, light lychee aromas. Round, soft, off dry palate with somewhat juicy acidity. Buttery, spicy lees, melon, honey, lychee, mango and vanilla flavours with a creamy finish. Riper, tropical style that offers good intensity and balance with some finesse.

Muddy, tobacco leaf, prune, blackberry, riparian, black olive, cedar, leather and five spice aromas. Dry, fresh, elegant but slightly tannic palate. Cedar, earthy, tobacco, black olive, green bean, cassis, spicy, coffee, dried herb and leather flavours. Solid, slightly rustic style to go with grilled meats.

Peppery, spicy, prune, tobacco, cherry jam, cedar bark, chocolate, black olive aromas. Round, dry, somewhat tart, light palate. Herbal, tobacco, cedar bark, cherry, resin, leather flavours with a prune note.

Small amounts of merlot, cab franc, malbec, petit verdot and petite sirah are in the blend, which adds complexity. The ripe fruit grabs you first, but there are other flavors lurking in the background - vanilla, cedar and mint - and the tannins are well-integrated.

There's a tangy fragrance to this white from California's Napa Valley. The flavor offers crisp pear and green apple flavors balanced by a slight buttery quality. Serve with fried cod, shrimp salad, pork tenderloin with apple sauce.

The moment I read the first sentence of Edmeades' winery philosophy, I knew I would like this Zinfandel. Mendocino is more than a geographical location, it's a state of mind. On a photography field trip from Berkeley in the summer of '71, I discovered the Mendocino state of mind...but I digress. Aromas of cherry pie, toasty crust and scents of wild herbs wafting into the dining room. Flavors of ripe cherry, smoky plum, with earthy and vanilla notes. Unfiltered, unfined, indigenous yeast fermentation. Where's my Volkswagen van, I gotta visit this place again!

Lovely. Smoky with notes of blueberry, plum and clove. Tannic edge. Silky texture. Long finish.

From head-trained vines off Yangarra's estate, with indigenous fermentation mostly in older French wood. Big and slightly meaty, with birch bark and cinnamon, and more roasted plum aromas but a bright blackberry whack. Dense and chewy, with great firm tannins - perhaps from aging in older oak - and vibrancy. A more rough-hewn, sinewy style, but gratifying.

These are wines that don't sacrifice quality for affordability.

These are wines that don't sacrifice quality for affordability.

Grapefruit and citrus notes with soft texture. Fermented and aged in French oak and blended with sauvignon musque for a rounder texture.

The 2008 Pinot Noir Monument (a blend of their very best barrels) is extraordinary. A super Pinot Noir, with full-bodied, opulent black cherry and black currant flavors touched by a nice, subtle smokiness and a hint of charcoal, this wine has great fruit, purity, and depth, without being heavy or over the top. This beauty should drink well for 7-8 years.

Chardonnay over the years has had success in the Alexander Valley, but it was of a fashion that reflected the warmth of the location. They were generally fat and oily, and there was certainly a market for that. But Alexander Valley is Cabernet country and Chardonnay will likely always play second fiddle. That said, there are exceptions and Stonestreet's Broken Road Vineyard Chardonnay is a good example. It's an Alexander Valley Chardonnay that behaves a bit like a cool-climate Chardonnay, from its firm acid backbone to the hint of minerality that is unusual for this region. At the core is a beautiful beam of lemony fruit, what I call lemon creme or lemon oil, and it's the marker for seriously good Chardonnay. The oak expresses itself with a lovely spice note on the nose that carries through the finish. It's elegant but not lean, exhibiting an alluring, creamy texture. You might not guess it was from Sonoma Coast or the Russian River, but you'd likely never think Alexander Valley, either. The cool-climate attributes are no doubt due to the elevation of the vineyard -- 1800 feet up Alexander Mountain. Whatever the reason, you are unlikely to find a much better Chard in these parts.

Powerful and compelling, this is the sort of wine designed for contemplation rather than being tossed back mindlessly the way we all often do. It delivers layer upon layer of expressive ripe fruit, of minerality, and of fresh, citrusy acidity. It's as creamy and voluptuous as a white satin bridal gown, and it exudes a mesmerizing perfume. It costs a pretty penny, no doubt about it, but that's all the more reason to be grateful for the immense pleasure it can convey to the mindful drinker.

This wine has a lovely floral aroma, with accents of peach, lime and honeysuckle. This being an oaked Viognier, the wine has some richness, but it's nicely integrated. It has well-balanced flavors of ripe peaches and lime, with a nice bit of acidity.

Here's a lovely Chardonnay with aromas of ripe peaches and vanilla and flavors of peaches, lime and candied pineapple. It's nicely balanced and undeniably delicious, with some crispness to balance out the ripe fruit character.