Boasts balanced oak and a hint of botrytised fruit, and it can star with chicken or pork in a creamy mustard sauce.

Longtime California producer Matanzas Creek is best known for its elegant Bennett Valley Merlot, but this savory, black-peppery Syrah is just as impressive. Its blackberry fruit and orange-peel acidity gain backbone from the inclusion of 14 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.

Forest floor and leafy herb notes with bold, well-ripened black fruit, with spice, coffee and anise.

Black cherry, sweet blackberry jam, tobacco, green pepper and a slightly sweaty cedar box aroma grace the nose of this delicious California cab. Firm tannins, with big and lush fruits which are true to the nose. Big acid, but very well balanced wine. A perfect complement to marinated red meats. Drinking now, but will improve easily over 5 to 7 years.

Good Value. Among the better white wine values to come our way in some time, this moderately sweet, well-balanced bottling is absolutely bursting with juicy, optimally ripened peaches. It goes beyond simple sweetness, however, and shows complexing suggestions of honey and marzipan, and it is enlivened by keenly fit acids all the way through. It will make a most amicable quaff when well chilled, but its richness and depth point the way to service with milder curries and shellfish in spicy sauces.

Good Value. Limited in varietal grassiness yet clean, fruity and well-balanced, this mid-sized Sauvignon smacks of sweet lemons with a touch of green melons in the mix. It hints at candy, is fairly frontal and narrows a bit at the end, but it maintains good focus and is a satisfying, eminently drinkable wine for the price.

Rich - but not over the top - aromas of banana, pineapple and cream soda, with sophisticated spice notes. A big wine with significant flavors of oak and vanilla that are balanced by a cavalcade of tropical fruit.

A good merlot, rich and elegant. Aromas and flavors of black plum, toast and spice. Medium-bodied. Balanced.

Kendall-Jackson's Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay is a generally well-regarded midpriced Chard.

An inexpensive sauvignon blanc that should be easy to find is the 2007 Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve, a juicy, slightly grassy version of the varietal.

Another good value in this category, the KJ sports simple pear, citrus and kiwi notes.

During their search for a property in Bordeaux, California vintner Jess Jackson and his business partner, French vigneron Pierre Seillan, were particularly impressed with Saint-Emilion's Chateau Lassegue. The estate's roughly 83 acres of vineyards boast nine different soil types (one of the region's most diverse plots) and 30- to 45 year old vines. Both vintners felt the property could produce wines of first-growth quality. In the Chateau Lassegue Saint Emilion Grand Cru 2004, their instincts are vindicated. Seillan's exacting method of separately harvesting, vinifying and blending small blocks of vineyards known as micro-crus has resulted in a complex and unusually detailed wine in a vintage that challenged most producers. The nose is redolent of strong roasted coffee and spicey licorice, while the velvety and voluptuous palate reveals ripe black plum, wild berries and vanilla bean before the lengthy finish of orange zest and cardamom.

This is one of the more New Zealand-like Sauvignon Blancs out there, and that's a compliment. The wine is thoroughly dry and very crisp in acidity, with a grassy, lemony, minerally profile that makes it savory. Approximately one-fifth was barrel fermented, adding just the right touch of cream and smoke.

Deep red. Dark berries and candied cherry on the nose, with slow-building oak spice and mocha character. Fleshy red fruit flavors are a touch candied but offer good straightforward appeal. Finishes with good length and an echo of jammy berry fruit.

Lots of blackberries with spicy notes in this McLaren Vale offering. Very extracted. Great Value, too.

A zesty Zin, aromatic and vibrant with great tannin and structure. Nice fruit flavors, with notes of dill and toasty oak spice. Long finish.

A nose of darker oak and toast notes underscore the black plum and wild strawberry. Soy and savory herb can also be found; similar flavors, plus vanilla and tart blackberry on the long finish; which shows a bit of alcoholic heat.

Andrew was enamored of the light body, the hint of orange peel and soft, grassy notes of the 2007 Murphy-Goode The Fumé, whose mere three months on French oak gave it the slightest toastiness.

A complex, elegant pinot with a soft texture. Aromas and flavors of strawberry, cherry, vanilla and toast. Wild and bramble. Good tannin. Long Finish.

Medium to dark ruby in color, this wine has a surprisingly Old World nose of earth, graphite, and the unmistakable scent of green bell pepper, which manages to hover well below the range of objectionable. In the mouth that greenness manifests as a hint of green wood studded in a matrix of bright cherry fruit dusted with fine tannins. Beautiful texture and a long finish make for lingering pleasure on the palate. 49% Merlot, 47% Cabernet Franc, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, with a splash (0.1%) of Malbec.

Dark ruby in color, this wine has a brawny nose of pipe tobacco, cola, and incense. In the mouth it reminds me of an operatic baritone -- rich, clear and resonant with flavors of cherry, tobacco, cola, and beautiful cedar notes that merge with the drying, powdery tannins. Hot damn I wrote in my notebook, this is definitely the best Bordeaux blend I've ever had from Sonoma County. And all the while the finish kept going and going and going. 86% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc, 4% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Malbec.

Inky ruby in color, this wine has a rich nose of dark roasted espresso, leather, and forest floor aromas that jump out of the glass. In the mouth it is surprisingly lithe given its powerful nose, and once past a deeply earthy first impression it offers beautiful flavors of cherry, tobacco, cassis and notes of herbs that seem like a light haze mixed in with the fine dusty tannins. The finish is long and dry. A very pretty wine. 66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 % Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot.

What's most delightful about this widely available California Sauvignon Blanc is that it doesn't try to hide the herbal, grassy nature of the grape. It celebrates it, with Lake County fruit that delivers a pleasing, herbal-infused mix of melon, fig and pear flavors. It's full-bodied, broad-shouldered and beautifully balanced.

A complex viognier with vibrant flavors. Floral, with notes of Golden Delicious apple, peach, melon, tangerine and spice. Long finish. Balanced.