Chardonnay remains a big seller, but inexpensive versions can be noticeably sweet. Still there are some good choices out there. The ubiquitous 2007 Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay does contain a bit of residual sugar, but it's well-balanced by acidity, and the wine displays racy apple and pear flavors.

A really good job from K-J. For 11 bucks you get a bone-dry, crisp white wine, filled with savory citrus, fig, vanilla and white pepper flavors. This versatile wine will go with just about anything.

This softly appealing Syrah has pie-filling flavors of cherries and blackberries, with cinnamon spice, brown sugar and baked crust overtones. It's a dry, interesting wine that belies its everyday price.

Sleek, with herb, mineral and dusty sage and berry flavors that have a touch of rhubarb and cedary oak.

Aromas of oak and ripe peaches; lush flavors of peaches and butter, with soft acids and creamy body.

An uncommonly pure, elegant vintage of this Bordeaux-style blend of fruit from mountain vineyards in Napa Valley, the 2005 is deeply saturated, thanks in large part to a late harvest. Flavors of black cherry, black currant, black licorice, and dark chocolate lie atop a soft, dense, velvety texture.

Hint of oak, very rich black cherry and mocha flavors, smooth, ripe tannins. Made of the holy trinity of red grapes, it's very user-friendly.

Seillan's version of a Bordeaux Blend-Cabernet Franc and Merlot-is what he calls a micro cru, made from select vines in three different Sonoma vineyards. Seillan has created a profound wine with deeply woven notes of blackberry liqueur, smoke and cassis.

Of the three wines produced by Pierre Seillan for Vérité, Le Désire blended with a large percentage of Cabernet Franc in the St.-Émilion style - remains the most seductive. Its luxurious black fruit enfolds complex essences of espresso, licorice, smoke, cinnamon, clove, and sandalwood.

A merlot with a deep core of blackberry, black plum, anise and pepper. Long finish.

Another blockbuster from winemaker Chris Carpenter, this mountain-sourced, single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon may be the most consistently dense wine of its kind in Napa Valley. With a bouquet of violets and intense spice - cardamom, nutmeg, and allspice - the 2005 vintage packs a truckload of fruit flavors that progress from blackberry to blueberry and ripe red apples. The tannins are massive, while roasted coffee and a pronounced granitelike minerality dominate the extended finish.

La Crema specializes in pinot noir, so it isn't surprising that this wine is a class act. One of several appellation-specific pinot noirs it makes, the Russian River Valley version has great spice. Silky tannins, rich black cherry flavors.

A unique blend of spice and blueberry sets this Shiraz apart from the pack, and it pulls away even further due to a lush, creamy texture and long, mouthcoating finish. There's great purity to the fruit, but enough peppery spice for complexity. Drink now-2016.

Vivid red. Spicy raspberry and cherry on the nose, with subtle floral and baking spice qualities gaining intensity with air. Light and brisk on the palate, offering tangy cherry skin and black raspberry flavors, along with a late kick of cracked pepper. Nicely focused on the finish, with the floral note echoing. I like this wine's appetizing bitterness.

There is always a question about consistency when a wine is made in large lots, but our sample of Kendall-Jackson's everyday-priced Syrah shows a professional hand with respect to composition and well-defined fruit. Fairly deep, nicely balanced and not so tannic as to preclude drinking now, it is a downright steal at the price.

A refreshing wine with notes of fig, kiwi and grapefruit.

White grapefruit flavors, crisp, dry.

Jess Jackson owns this California Zin specialist. Its 45-year-old vineyards yield the grapes for this polished wine with a deep raspberry essence.

Rich nose, cherries, clove. Juicy and supple, but with a taut and ample length.

This mountain Cab, blended with a little Petit Verdot and Syrah, is grown at 2,400 feet in the Mayacamas Mountains, which provide the east wall of Alexander Valley. The wine is know to be an ager, and the '04 should develop for many years. It's a tremendous wine, the equal of almost anything from Napa, which, after all, is just a geographic boundary away. Fabulously concentrated in cassis, currant, smoky cherry, licorice and chocolate flavors, its tannic structure is nearly perfect.

This is a big, powerful Chardonnay that impresses for sheer volume. Crisp acidity provides a keen balance to the ripe pineapple, white peach custard, sweet green apple purée, buttered toast and vanilla flavors that finish with a smoky swirl of dusty spices.

Showing a flavor concentration unusual in California Chardonnay, this mountain wine is massive in baked tropical mango, guava and peach flavors, even a decadent taste of ripe bananas sautéed in butter and spiced with cinnamon, cloves and ginersnap cookie. Its' also rich in smoky, caramelized oak, yet there's a firm backbone of minerals that, together with crisp acids, gives the wine structure.

This is a very powerful Chardonnay, brimming in guava, golden mango, white peach, pear and Key lime pie flavors, to which smoky oak adds even richer layers of butterscotch and caramel. A crisp edge of peppery acidity provides a clean, zesty balance to this enormous wine.

A wine this good, priced at $18, makes me wonder what some other people are doing with all their carefully selected Chardonnay fruit. In the case of Melissa Stackhouse at La Crema, she is keeping it brisk and clean. The vineyard sites are all located within 25 miles of the coast and the freshness of this wine, the flavors of pear and peach skin, give it a zest that feels true to that coastal influence. It's layered and cool, a luscious wine for crab.