Mint and anise notes add depth to the exuberant wild blackberry and cassis flavours. Richly oaked and solidly structured.

100% Cabernet Sauvignon. 22 months in new French oak. Rich nose but fresh underneath. Very chewy still. 16.5/20

The most powerful and densely structured of the four wines in this producer's portfolio, this Mt. Veeder Cabernet has an impenetrable bluish-black color that portends the dark elements of spice, char, and anise that emerge on the palate.

Lokoya wines endure the passage of time As a preview of how Lokoya will age, Inman went deep into the cellar. Tasted beside their infantile brothers, the Lokoya Spring Mountain and Mount Veeder 2007s had years left to continue to evolve. In 10 years time, Spring Mountain’s secondary flavors of mushrooms, truffle and soy sauce had emerged. The Mount Veeder showed blackberry and iron flavors. A salinity had emerged and umami trait had taken hold. Both were dark in the glass; neither of their colors had faded.

Lokoya wines endure the passage of time As a preview of how Lokoya will age, Inman went deep into the cellar. Tasted beside their infantile brothers, the Lokoya Spring Mountain and Mount Veeder 2007s had years left to continue to evolve. In 10 years time, Spring Mountain’s secondary flavors of mushrooms, truffle and soy sauce had emerged. The Mount Veeder showed blackberry and iron flavors. A salinity had emerged and umami trait had taken hold. Both were dark in the glass; neither of their colors had faded.

Its mineral nose has almost a charred character that gives way to an elixir of mountain berries and dark-roasted coffee. The finish is best described as a sustained and captivating crescendo.

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.

From the beginning of their careers as vintners, Jess Jackson and his wife, Barbara Banke, understood that great wines are all about place. Having made the momentous decision in the early 1980s to give up their San Francisco law practices to pursue their dream of making wine, the couple searched the length of California for the very best Chardonnay vineyards they could find, and blended the resulting wines to create the award-winning Kendall-Jackson 1982 Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay. In the course of acquiring and developing properties, Banke and Jackson identified several small mountainside vineyards, whose exceptional and distinctive fruit furnished the inspiration for an exclusive label, Lokoya, which produces only 100-percent mountain-grown, single-vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons. In the Lokoya 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder, winemaker Chris Carpenter has crafted one of the vintage's true treasures: a balanced, luxurious, stunningly textured composition of succulent blackberry, fragrant violets, roasted coffee, and cool, earthy minerality.

Founded in 1995 by Barbara Banke and Jess Jackson, owners of Kendall-Jackson, Lokoya was conceived as a boutique winery that would focus on producing pure Cabernet Sauvignon wines from single-mountain vineyards. In Lokoya's short lifespan, its three winemakers - originally Greg Upton, then Marco DiGiulio, and now Chris Carpenter - have delivered superb wines of enormous power. Diamond Mountain tends to be slightly lighter in body with very round fruit; Howell Mountain is a powerful wine with dark fruit and firm tannins and Mount Veeder, a blockbuster with huge tannins and intense minerality, is built for aging.

Lokoya Howell Mountain 2003 This latest single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from winemaker Christopher Carpenter is a refined and inky brew. The nose gives off violets, spicy plum, cassis, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate, and the finish is a lengthy tour de force that culminates in a satisfying minerality.

This Napa Cabernet's tannins tower as high as the mountain from which it is sourced, yet they are pleasingly coated in black cherry, blackberry, Christmas-cake spices, and a twist of mint.

Lokoya Winery Cabernet Sauvignon 2002 (Diamond Mountain District, Napa Valley) Black as night, with intense, blackberry tastes and hints of chocolate, mint and tobacco. Huge, but surprisingly elegant and balanced, with a long, dry, peppery finish.

The most common issue with inexpensive Pinot Noir is unbearable lightness. There is nothing thin or insipid about this earthy Pinot from Monterey, a perfect Pinot fix for tailgate parties and savory autumn dishes. It shows notes of forest floor and mushroom, with a hint of strawberry and raspberry on the palate.

This wine is an overachiever from Monterey where cool ocean breezes and foggy days build great Pinots. The fruit is lush and varietally correct — tea leaf, bing cherry, cranberry and spice. It’s a great wine to lure a new generation of wine drinkers to a winemaker’s holy grail. And it is indeed liberated: from heavy alcohol and overly ripe fruit.

This Cabernet comes in three different labels, displaying the archetypes of the explorer, the business man and the adventurer. In taste, the wine is smoky and soft, with plum, cassis and dark cherry all making a play.

If one must find a liberated angle, this is an approachable, delicious Cabernet free of aggressive tannins and stewed fruit flavors. Aromas of cherry, blackberry, currant, rich dark chocolate and vanilla are followed by dark fruit flavors with wonderfully integrated oak and braced with acidity. The Cabernet fruit gets an assist from touches of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Alcohol is a well-mannered 13.5 percent.

While Sauvignon Blancs are often herbal and grassy, sometimes fermented in oak and infused with spice and smoky cedar, this one is different. It’s crisp and dry with bright flavors. It has a great spine of acidity to add balance to the fruit — citrus, passionfruit, lime, kiwi, green apple. It’s stainless steel fermented and aged.

This new California producer makes a very good sauvignon blanc and pinot noir for the money. The name is supposed to denote the producer's desire to push beyond the boundaries. Whatever. The labels are pretty wild, but depict a carefree lifestyle. The sauvignon blanc is crisp and bright with delicious citrus and grapefruit notes.

Wines To Toast Dad Sonoma’s Alexander Valley delivers both valley floor and mountain fruit, giving winemakers the opportunity to utilize various elevations to craft a harmonious wine. Jess Jackson realized this years ago when he created his Legacy Wines, meant to showcase age-worthy wines from the region with the highly structured, powerful, and focused Legacy Cabernet Sauvignon layering anise, wild sage, black cherry, pencil lead, and blackberry.

Options abound with Mother's Day Chardonnay Legacy Chardonnay from the Field Stone Vineyard in Alexander Valley delivers the dream of founder Jess Jackson to create age-worthy, elegant Chardonnay with a sense of place, enhancing a delicate, inviting palate.

Wines of the Week This estate on Howell Mountain was first founded by Swiss immigrant Frederick Hess in 1898. Initial success at winegrowing was noted by awards at the 1900 Paris Exposition, but prohibition was once again the death knell to a successful property. Today, the property is owned by the Jess Jackson family. This Merlot offers intense aromas and flavors of blackberry, toasty oak, cola and dark chocolate with notes of mineral and floral perfume.

At the end of each year, I look back over the wines I've tasted and put together a list of the best of the year. The Top 5 Wines of 2017 featured selections from California, Washington, Virginia and Australia. This year's top wines come from California, Australia and Italy. Here they are in no particular order... While it may still be viewed as controversial by some, merlot indeed can make great wine - especially when made by winemaker, Chris Carpenter. The 2015 Merlot* vinted & bottled by La Jota Vineyard Co. was bold, yet nuanced.

October is Global Merlot Month. This social media event brings together merlot lovers from across the world to celebrate this grape variety. To celebrate here on the Nittany Epicurean, my ongoing series of discovery of some of the great wines of California will take us to Napa for this excellent merlot: 2015 Merlot vinted & bottled by La Jota Vineyard Co. (Oakville, California). The wine showed a dark ruby almost opaque color. Blackberry, cassis, raspberry, vanilla, black cherry and oak all arrived on the deep nose. Black cherry, raspberry, blackberry, vanilla, cola, mossy earth and oak followed on a palate driven by luscious cherry notes. The wine exhibited excellent structure and length, along with moderate tannins. It would pair well with a classic preparation of Beef Stroganoff.

Giving the gift of fine wine And now two wines that will make any red wine drinker fall in love with Merlot again, thanks to Jackson Family Wines and winemaker Christopher Carpenter. Carpenter established a premier reputation as the longtime winemaker at the highly regarded Kendall-Jackson owned wineries Cardinale and Lokoya. “If farmed right in the proper locations and treated similar to cabernet sauvignon, merlot can be great, just as it is in other countries.” In this case Carpenter is talking about the high-elevation vineyards that source the 2015 Mount Brave and 2015 La Jota. These are serious, complex, full-bodied wines. Mount Brave, from vineyards on Mount Veeder, is fleshy with deep fruit, cocoa, spice and mint. LaJota, from Howell Mountain, is densely packed with earth, mocha, spice and lovely freshness.

The Weekly Dozen From the upper east side, it is juicy and tangy – a wild ride with rich fruit and good minerality and acidity.