Hint of oak, flavors of blackberries and chocolate, smooth.

The late Jess Jackson, a San Francisco attorney turned vigneron, got himself on the map with his early-1980s chardonnays, but the Vintner's Reserve cabernet soon became a workhorse wine in its own right, too. All the Bordeaux varietals - grown in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino County hillside vineyards - are represented in the blend, adding layers of flavor and complexity and, again, the vintage was historic. Aging lasted eight months in a mix of French and American oak.

These grapes are sourced from a site high above Sonoma’s Alexander Valley on a west-facing slope with volcanic soils. Large temperature swings at this elevation build complexity and give elegant muscular strength to the wine. Soft, velvet tannins caress the palate. Flavors are dark cherry, red currant, dark plum and molten dark chocolate. It’s aged 18 months in mostly French oak.

Cozy up to this robust, concentrated black beauty with a pan-fried steak or sauteed lamb chops. Swirl and savor the aromas of cassis, blackberry, dark chocolate, and cedar. In the mouth it has acidity and good tannic structure to balance the fruit. This wine was off a challenging cool, rainy vintage in California — a rarity. This unusual vintage created a Cabernet more in the style of France – rustic and tight.

Wines of the Week: 6 Fireside Bottles So what are our fireside wines? Think big earthy powerful reds that need robust and equally warming foods to match them. The New World take on bordeaux is a great source of such wines, so here are two best kept for special occasions and your finest foods: the Californian Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 is a bordeaux-style blend. Small amounts of petit verdot, cabernet franc, merlot and malbec from vineyards scattered around Sonoma and Napa give added complexity: flavours of tar, liquorice, cassis and lashings of forceful black fruit. As well as casseroles this is a good bet for Christmas roasts of beef or venison...

Wine made up of a large base of Cabernet Sauvignon and with small portions of different grapes including Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot and Malbec, all the grapes come from Sonoma County in California. Appearance: For being a 2011 the wine offers us a surprisingly bright red color and edges more tiles typical of maturity. Wine is at its best to be consumed. Smell: It shows touches of flowers such as acacias, jasmine, cassis and raspberries, then an earthy finish and a leather finish. Taste: Wine of good tannic structure, intense, lively, tasty, with very good balance and a mouth ending that falls in love.

Toasty aromas, flavors of cassis and bittersweet chocolate, assertive acids and tannins, spicy.

The fruit is off K-J’s Alexander Mountain Estate vineyard, east of Geyserville in Sonoma County. The mountain berries are small and intense, producing a Cab with cassis, blackberry and black cherry tones.

Also stellar is the winery’s new 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, mainly from Sonoma County ($19).This delightful wine is so young it won’t show how excellent it is until at least a year from now.

Full-bodied and pleasant with dark fruit. Balanced and juicy. Food matches: ribs, steaks, burgers. Kendall-Jackson's Vintner's Reserve is consistently one of the best value Cabernets from California. Compare this just-released 2010 vintage with the 2009 half bottle also in this release (LCBO # 706077). A great wine for the backyard barbecue. Pull up the Muskoka chairs, kick back and enjoy.

...soft and mellow, with aromas and flavors of black plums and licorice.

When the Kendall-Jackson wine team puts their eyes and palates on the best lots of wine off the best single estate vineyards, the end result always rocks. These Jackson Estate new releases are limited-production wines. They are special. Creamy, intense, infused with spicy, smoky oak, bursting with red berries: AWESOME. I seldom use a word that strong to describe a wine, but for the price and the quality, this wine sings. It's like a plush carpet of flavors in the mouth: cassis, cherry, plum and dark chocolate, with soft, silky tannins. Hawkeye Vineyard is in the Mayacamas Mountains above Alexander Valley - the elevation helps explain the intensity of the flavor and structure, the mineral tones and soft, chewy tannins.

A solid Cabernet, offering plenty of savory blackberry, cola and spice flavors that finish dry and wholesome.

The linchpins are the two vineyards: Trace Ridge in Knights Valley and Alexander Mountain Estate. This is a dark, intense, brooding wine, still closed in but offering a glimpse of its power: black plums, cherries, currants and chocolate, with cedar and violet tones.

Perfect varietal character of dried cherry and dried herbs mark the aroma; the texture is startlingly balanced for pairing with food. It harkens back to an earlier era.

There's a lot going on in this bad boy from Sonoma County, and all of it's good if you like expressive dark fruit. Mostly cabernet with petit verdot, merlot and cab franc accounting for 12 percent of the blend, the grapes are a mix of mountain, ridge and hillside fruit. Despite the robust flavors, all the components are in balance, and the alcohol is a restrained 13.5 percent.

Full-bodied and pleasant with dark fruit. Balanced and juicy. Food matches: ribs, steaks, burgers.

A perennial favourite with Vintages customer's, K-J's Vintner's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon seems to get better with every vintage. This Cabernet is round, ripe and fruit-driven (look for plump cherry, cassis and cocoa aromas and flavours), and is an excellent choice for when you need something you can rely on at the last minute. So stock up!

Black fruit, custard, spice, mocha and cinnamon aromas. Upfront style with sweet black fruit, bright acidity and grippy tannins. Has a spice, herb and pepper finish.

Small amounts of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and others add to this red's complexity.