Wines from Mothers to Mothers Jen Walsh's superb Pinot is gorgeous in the glass and on the palate. Its expressive fruit is coupled with excellent acidity, smoothly rounded tannins, notable complexity and much more.

Top 10 Wines For Pairing With Favorite Grilled Foods Heading into the lighter reds, this cool-climate Pinot Noir goes equally well with fish and meat. My favorite pairing for this cola- and dark-fruit-driven wine is a local cod on the grill or a nice fatty pork chop.

Cherry, pencil and spice with a touch of orange and vanilla. Good.

WINE WITH…Chicken a la Flamande The white wines we liked best with this dish tended to be fresh and soft on the palate. Good reds likewise were inclined to be soft and reigned in rather than brash and tannic. At the same time, regardless of color, the best wines were full of enticing flavor. La Crema, Sonoma Coast (California) Pinot Noir 2016 This Pinot’s ripe cherry and cassis flavors wrap deliciously around the smoky bacon elements in the dish, and its generous finish helps prolong the pleasurable experience.

This is a lovely Pinot Noir that succeeds vintage after vintage and has a fan base that looks for it every year. The 2016 shows attractive, fairly concentrated and nicely complex fruit that’s balanced by fresh acidity. The texture is smooth and inviting and the tannins are relaxed. There’s simply nothing not to like about this wine. Four stars.

The right kind of stepping-stone Pinot La Crema makes a lot of wine, and that is good news, because you can find this bottle almost anywhere and it's a great expression of the balanced side of Pinot Noir on a large production level. There is a lot going on here, with vanilla and cherries on the nose along with some fun earthy aromas such as clove, mushrooms and a hint of beetroot (soil). On the palate the wine is comfy and chewy with added aromas of slight cola and caramel along with a rhubarb tinge finishing with a whisper of black olive. You can’t go wrong with this wine, it’s a nice stepping stone to higher priced, focused bottles from this region.

10 wines worth sharing for Thanksgiving Another chardonnay and pinot noir specialist from the Jackson family, this time producing wines from multiple appellations. The Monterey and Sonoma Coast wines are especially good values. The Russian River Valley wines are stars.

La Crema pinot noir is one of those wines that has been popular for a long time. People know it is good, you see it everywhere, and you don’t think about it much. Every time I drink it I am reminded why it is so popular. It is just what a pinot noir is supposed to taste like: full of ripe red fruit, juicy cherry, plums and blackberries. It is a refreshing wine that pairs well with a wide variety of food. The suggested retail price is $25, but I often see it on sale for several dollars less. It is a fun wine to drink, even without food, so when you can find it on sale, you are getting a really good deal. Powerful aromas of cherry and plum start things off, leading to complex fruit flavors with hints of spice and toast. Everything is in balance, leading to a long, pleasant finish with a smooth mouthfeel.

Large-volume La Crema bottles Pinot Noirs at a wide range of prices, and this one over-delivers. It’s a blend of grapes from a dozen or so vineyards, which winemaker Craig McAllister wove into a seamless wine with robust fruit, intense spice, and woodsy earthiness. It’s not a shy wine, so it’s best served with wildmushroom risotto with lots of savory Parmigiano-Reggiano, or perhaps mushroom-topped pizza.

Bottled up: Get on the board La Crema Pinot Noir 2016 is a classic example of New World Pinot Noir. This Pinot Noir comes from Sonoma County on the California coast where the red grape variety is widely produced. The nearby Pacific Ocean moderates the temperature in Sonoma County creating a perfect area for the delicate Pinot Noir grape. Flavors of cherry and ripe plum come together with exotic spice in this off-dry expression made from 100 percent Pinot Noir. This wine's fruit-forward taste and medium body makes it a great and versatile choice to pair with your meat and cheese board. Try with smoked Gouda, prosciutto and mild salamis.

Wines to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! Irish Beef Stew with hearty beef, carrots, and herbs is uncharacteristically deep and complex for cuisine that tends to favour simpler flavours and cooking processes. La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir has bright berry notes to contrast the thyme and Worcestershire flavours of the stew. It also brings an earthiness to complement the root vegetables, allowing for a cohesion of flavour.

8 Red Wines You Can Totally Drink in the Summer Oh, summer reds are a thing all right. Pinot noirs are one of the best wines for summer, and those from cooler climates like the Sonoma Coast, where this hails from, tend to be particularly light. "Bursting with fruit flavors like cherry, plum and blood orange, this wine pairs well with a day lounging on the beach or a backyard barbecue on the first warm night of summer," says La Crema winemaker Craig McAllister. Yum. La Crema is also pretty easy to find (you’ve probably seen its chardonnay on a wine list or two), so it’s a solid pick wherever you are in the States.

Six pinot noirs for Thanksgiving For a little more money, there’s the 2016 La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, with ripe yet lively cherry and raspberry and enough structure to stand up to the food. Note that La Crema has a number of appellation bottlings; the Willamette Valley is also very good.

What I'm Drinking on the Fourth of July This family winery, begun in 1979, originally used the name La Crema Vinera to denote their wines would be the "best of the vine," and consistency has always been a hallmark of their satiny flagship cool climate Pinot Noirs, which will go as well with salmon as with roast pork. The fruit is sourced from several vineyards with various soil types, so you get minerality with the soft fruitiness.

Medium transparent ruby hue; black and red cherries and plums; cloves, sassafras and sandalwood, fairly exotic; sleek, lithe and supple, energized by bright acidity; a finish packed with loam, violets, slightly dusty tannins. Now through 2022-’24. Very Good+.

Raise a glass of red wine to Dad Strawberry, cranberry, and forest-floor filled La Crema Willamette Valley Pinot Noir has been a favorite of my Dad’s since the winery joined the region a few years ago, highlighting the distinct structure of Willamette Valley fruit.

This is a lovely pinot noir with upfront bing cherry fruit. It has layered notes of cedar, cocoa and forest floor. Medium bodied. Smart. 3½ stars.

This marks the third time in the past four vintage that La Crema has earned our top rating for its flagship Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. Maryland native Jennifer Walsh came north from the Russian River to take over the Oregon program from Craig McAllister, who now heads up the La Crema team for Jackson Family Wines. This flashes a bit more new French oak (30%) than the prior vintage, yet the fruit expression from Gran Moraine in the Yamhill-Carlton American Viticultural Area and Zena Crown in the Eola-Amity Hills is simply superb. Perfumy notes of toasted coconut, filbert skins and Indian spices are joined by blueberry with plum. Those lead into flavors of Bing cherry and rich plum, making for a gorgeously fleshy texture of blueberry and dried strawberry. Suggested pairings range from pepper-crusted prime rib, rosemary rack of lamb, sautéed salmon and lentil soup with fresh tarragon to curried mussels and chicken masala. Outstanding!

10 wines worth sharing for Thanksgiving Another chardonnay and pinot noir specialist from the Jackson family, this time producing wines from multiple appellations. The Monterey and Sonoma Coast wines are especially good values. The Russian River Valley wines are stars.

Very light in colour, show ing fine red cherry and floral scents together with a whiff of herb on the nose. Pleasantly ripe refined cherry flavours persist on the palate with a touch of spice and a light splash of milk chocolate.

Picking out Sonoma County wines that will impress A tasty pinot with bright notes of red fruit — cherry, raspberry and rhubarb. Hint of red plum. A touch earthy. Balanced. A steal for the quality.

A tasty pinot with bright notes of red fruit –– cherry, raspberry and rhubarb. Hint of red plum. A touch earthy. Balanced. A steal for the quality. 3½ stars.

La Crema consistently crafts good and reasonably priced pinot noirs from cool climate appellations. This offering from Monterey showcases a very refreshing pinot noir that delivers a tart, bright-acid style with a mélange of cherry, cranberry and a hint of rhubarb. Very easy to drink but comes alive with fish and chicken dishes.

Albertans love California wines. Ripe, rich and bursting with fruit, wines from the sunny state definitely please our palates. This bright Pinot Noir from La Crema, a large Sonoma-based winery founded in 1979, comes from the Monterey County growing region, south of San Francisco. Extremely cold water in the deep Monterey Bay feeds cooling winds up the Salinas River valley, making the growing region ideal for cool climate grapes such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Look for flavours of bramble, black cherry, raspberry, spice, cedar, earth and violet. It’s medium bodied, with lots of fresh fruit flavours and a lovely long finish.

Nine months in French oak, 21% new barrels. Transparent medium ruby color; cloves and allspice with a whiff of cumin; macerated black and red cherries and currants, an undertone of citrus; a pinot noir of the meadows and forests, heathery and woodsy in floral and fruit elements; dense, chewy, supple; dry and lively; dark forces, a bit untamed, notes of raspberry, raspberry leaf and graphite. Now through 2022 to ’24. I liked this pinot noir’s air of unbridled glee. Excellent.