A solid effort, with ripe currant, cherry and spicy oak flavors, but also has a leathery, barnyardy edge. Balanced and ready to drink now.

This has a broad spectrum of flavors, mouth-filling blackberry fruit and a hint of chocolate. Forward in style with soft tannins and long finish.

Try these selections if your post-holidays wallet is a bit light From the brand started in 1983, Kendall-Jackson has grown into one of the world's larger family-owned wine companies. The Vintner's Reserve line remains the company's backbone.

Very fine quality, this is a stylish, finely flavored Merlot that is supple, well balanced, moderately intense, and long and harmonious on the finish. In aroma/flavor, it tastes of black currant, cherry, blackberry, toast, and cedar. Lightly tannic, it will develop with further aging. 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3.5% Malbec, 1% Petit Verdot, 0.5% Cabernet Franc. 5 stars, exceptional.

Grand Reserve is Kendall Jackson winemaker’s blend of their mountain, ridge, hillside and benchland grapes grown along California’s cool coastal appellations. The wine was aged in mostly French oak, 28% new, but does a great job of integrating the oak for complexity and structure. Look for red currant and cherry flavors with background notes of cedar, cocoa and spice.

Gold Medal

True to the power and intensity of wines created from the 2013 vintage in California, this baby will rock your socks: It has big, bold, dark berry flavors with notes of dark plum, dark cherry, dark chocolate and cedar. Tannins are refined; acidity provides structure. It was aged 17 months in mostly French oak. It's no wallflower.

Spicy oak frames the plush, juicy red plum and black fruit; the supple, mouth-coating tannins are balanced by palate-whisking acidity. It delivers more than its relatively modest price would suggest.

This is Merlot you can almost chew - the firm tannins; the concentrated fruit; the spicy, toasty oak; the balance from the acidity; and the alcohol that adds to the body. The Merlot is further braced with Cabernet Sauvignon and some Malbec and Petit Verdot. Imagine an intense jam made of cherries and plums, spiked with espresso.

A tasty, approachable red with notes of currant, plum and anise. Nice length.

Hint of oak, aromas and flavors of black cherries and milk chocolate, long, smooth finish.

Merlot, like Syrah, has suffered its share of arrows and slings, yet its affable, outgoing aspects are still beloved by many and a careful look at retailers’ shelves will reveal more than a few very fine values...and the very solid, keenly focused (one star) Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Sonoma County 2012 Merlot.

We are both surprised and bemused by Merlot’s ongoing lack of respect, but if that explains why so many attractive examples can be found at such reasonable prices, then we are not about to complain. KENDALL-JACKSON checks in with its second Best Buy mention this month for its Grand Reserve Sonoma County 2012 ($26.00)...

Well-stated, black cherry fruit is joined by a hint of tea-leaf herbaceousness and trim touch of hardwoody sweetness in the attractive aromas here, and the wine follows with like-minded, medium-depth flavors that are made all the easier to like by its mannerly balance and tactile polish. While certain to keep comfortably and improve for a few years, it is entirely enjoyable now, and, considering its minimal increase in price over the winery’s Vintner’s Reserve version, it is definitely the one to buy of the Kendall-Jackson pair.

Splashes of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon add complexity to this flat-out delicious, stylish Merlot. Generous in plump plum, black raspberry and black cherry fruit, it has a very pleasant herbal quality, moderate oak structure and supple tannins.

It's a Merlot almost entirely with a little Malbec and a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma County, it was awarded with 90 points in Wine Enthusiast magazine. Appearance: presents a cherry red color with violet edges that shows its perfect evolution and conservation granestado. Smell: It is a mix of different things, begins with touches of black pepper, giving way to delicate aromas of cinnamon and vanilla, in minutes you begin to discover the black fruits, where blackberries and blueberries stand out. Taste: It is a wine that is worth waiting, to see its great evolution in the glass, start with medium and friendly tannins, with a pleasant acidity, while the minutes pass the wine opens and the tannins offer us a certain sweetness and warmth. A good wine quality price.

There is nothing shy about this wine — it’s a bold, dry, fruity Merlot braced with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Tannat and Malbec. You pick up the dark cherry, dark currant, ripe dark plum character right away. I love the little dance in the finish by the Cab Franc – dried cranberry and bell pepper. It’s a dark, brooding wine packed with smoke and spice off the mostly French barrels. It was aged 17 months in wood. Alcohol is 14.5 percent. It’s a satisfying mouthful — a wine to sip and enjoy with a charred steak, lamb chops or a hearty red pasta dish.

2011 Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Merlot, Sonoma County: aromas of cedar, flavors of black cherries and mocha, soft tannins, smooth; $28.

The aroma is spot-on cherries and dried herbs, and the savory nature of the wine is designed to go with food.

This is a smooth, suave, sophisticated merlot from a highly commercial winery that I can't help admiring. This is an ideal restaurant red — full-bodied enough to match with serious food, but perfectly ready to be drunk now. It offers intense black cherry fruit, with subtle herbal notes, and admirable persistence and finish. It just goes down real easy.

Flavors of juicy red and black cherry, licorice, sandalwood and spice abound in this dry, savory Merlot. It's easy to drink with burgers, steaks or lamb.