The Napa is big-bodied, loaded with texture and fruit, mouthfilling and long on the palate.

The vastly preferred of Kendall-Jackson's Great Estates duo, this exceptionally well-made Cabernet manages at once to be both ver rich and wonderfully refined. It's fragrant opening suggests cherries, vanilla, touches of sweet and slightly dust earth, and its deep, easy-to-access flavors follow accordingly with energetic fruit fully in charge. Those who can resist its short-term charms will find an even more involving wine waiting just a few years down the line.

. . . this is pure Napa Valley fruit: black cherries with a hint of mint and good oak flavors. It is quite a mouthful.

Blended from a range of vineyards, virtually all from the Napa Valley (one percent from Alexander Valley), this cabernet comes off soft and ripe. The sweet red jam flavors have a crispness in the finish...

Dark color, with a deep, rich, young nose that leaps out and bites you back. Edgy. Serious breeding and awesome fruit. Black-cherry wine. Definitely one for the future.

Black cherry, currant, sandalwood and fresh herb notes are wrapped within slightly green tannins.

Good full red. Perfumed, fruit-driven nose combines redcurrant, raspberry and black cherry; fresher and less rustic than that of Alexander Valley bottling. Dense, sweet and full in the mouth, with harmonious acidity keeping it fresh. Conveys Alexander Valley bottling. But finishes slightly more aggressive, with big, dusty, tannins.

You can literally smell the rich texture along with the aromatic complexity in this wine after one swirl of the glass. Dark plum and blackberry fruit flavors are well extracted with a deep, chewy texture, perfect balance and fine, flavor sustaining acidity. A classic Napa cab, with Rutherford dust, that deserves some bottle age to really blossom.

dry, full-bodied, full tannin, medium acidity; This wine delivers big, bold flavors: blackberry, cassis, cherry, vanilla, and tar.

Good full red. Aromas of redcurrant, leather, chocolate and tobacco. lush and seamless on the palate, with an attractive restrained sweetness and good acid verve. Not yet displaying its full personality, but this is already aromatic in the mouth. Finishes with dusty, mounting tannins and a very good persistence.

Dark berry flavors, along with overtones of cherries and dried herbs are juicy and soft in the mouth. Well concentrated and moderately complex, the wine's stream of flavors doesn't quit and is enhance with a dollop of oak. More polished than the Napa bottling and delicious to drink now.

Deep black fruit aroma, plums and black cherries; toasted oak backnotes; full tannins, cherry-berry flavors; long finish.

Quite good.

Red-ruby. Very ripe, slightly briary aromas of raspberry, cherry and smoky oak. Large-scaled and mouthfilling; very ripe but not at all heavy. This offers impressive sweetness and depth of flavor. Finishes long and smooth, with sweet tannins spreading out to coat the palate.

Very rich, oaky and a bit jammy. Sumptuous and concentrated with a chewy finish.

Reductive nose. Very rich, very oaky and a bit jammy, but with open tannic support. This is a blockbuster with more power than finesse -- but sumptuous and concentrated with a chewy finish...Oak and fruit aromas. Very young ripe fresh berry fruit combined with good acidity and tannin balance. Some complexity, with a long alcoholic, rich finish.

Offering quiet fruit as a foil to notes of oak, dust and dry chocolate…

Medium-bodied, with a smoky, rustic, barnyard-streak to the black cherry and tar flavors. Finishes with leathery tannins.

This cab has a soft style and resembles Merlot. A crisp, pleasant wine with tangy, bright blackberry fruit.

This, the most plentiful of Kendall-Jackson's "reserve" Cabernets, is a rounded, slightly herbal, relatively uncomplicated, mid-sized wine that is fit with attractive fruit and trim of sweetening oak. It is lightly tannic yet and could do with a few years of age…

Gobs of generous cassis, cherry and plum flavors. Nice oak.

...Kendall-Jackson's impressive Single Vineyard Series, the 1996 Buckeye Vineyard cabernet sauvignon. This is a big, elegant wine with layers of flavors and a lovely, long finish. At $65, it's a wine for dedicated cabernet fans.

…moderately full-bodied wine also displays a good degree of extract and fairly showy oak.

...it finishes with shrill acidity. and comes across as compressed and lean. It will undoubtedly dry out before it ever blossoms.

Soft but austere berry fruit