Most folks would consider Alden a dessert wine. Its sweet spicy aromas and flavors are rather portlike, but Mr. Williamson (winemaker, Van Williamson) likes to serve it on the rocks or mixed half-and-half with sparkling wine and served as an aperitif.

Ciapusci is 100 percent zinfandel made from a vineyard planted in 1878. It's an elegant wine with roses, black pepper, tobacco and ripe raspberries on the nose, with clean, spicy fruity flavors.

Always one of the best values in the Pinot Noir category, the Vintner's Reserve exudes fresh cherry fruit. A blend of grapes from many vineyards, it may not be distinctive, but it is hard to question the pure pleasure of generous fruit.

Intense aromas and ripe, almost jammy flavors of blackberry, plum and brown spice, sweet vanilla, hints of toast and licorice; a big, juicy, very ripe style.

Kendall-Jackson has amassed such a wealth of vineyard resources throughout California that for them, providing a good bottle of wine on the cheap is almost second nature. Winemaster Randy Ullom and his winemaking team of Chris Johnson and Mark Theis sculpt wines from the tropics of the Central Coast to the fog bound zones of Mendocino, and somehow they're always able to find the sweet spot that balances all these divergent elements in ways that seem effortless.

Some maturity. Cherry/plum fruit. Quite deep and firm. Light plum and cherry overtones on mid palate. Fat and full. 5-10 years.

Pure merlot flavor carries straight through this clean, well-blended red. Sweet, perfumed cassis balances light and savory tannins, the wine ending on a floral note.

Jess Jackson continues his quest for the perfect blended wine. This combination of Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino is quite hefty in astringent tannins. Beneath that is a rich core of sweet black cherry fruit. It seems designed for the cellar. Best after 2007.

Very tart in acidity, this wine from the cooler parts of Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Sonoma has a green minerally edge to its apple pie flavors. It's well oaked, and long on the spicy finish.

The blending of six per cent Semillion and four per cent Viognier, plus aging of eight per cent of the wine in new oak illustrate how K-J is sculpting the style of Sauvignon, trying to retain core herbaceousness and zest while adding complexity. It works well. The nose shows some vanilla and butterscotch sweetness, atop green fig fruit. The palate is warm yet fresh, with a sweet note on the finish, as well as grapefruit and spice.

This is a pretty good Cab, with polished flavors of blackberries, cherries, dried herbs and coffee. The tannins are smooth and chunky...

Pretty nose of peach and lemon zest with generous peach, apple, almond and hazelnut flavors; crisp, balanced palate, pleasant finish.

Other Syrah(s) that offer a lot of flavor for the money include the 2001 Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve.

A muscular blend of fruit from three counties; shows more depth than most California efforts.

Good full ruby. Reticent, pure aromas of chocolate, mocha, cola and minerals. Sweet, suave and opulent, with compelling flavors of raspberry and minerals. Wonderfully intense and fresh California wine, finishing with superb sweetness of fruit and length.

Medium ruby. Aromatic nose combines wild blackberry, Cuban tobacco, chocolate cake, smoke and minerals. Concentrated, lush and impressively sweet, with snappy raspberry and mineral flavors dominating. This is kept fresh by harmonious acidity but is also lush, seamless and expansive. Finishes with broad tannins and impressive sweetness and persistence. This St. Emilion-style blend is still very young and may prove to be the best of the 2001 trio made under the Verite label.

Good full medium ruby. Captivating aromas of black and red raspberry, violet, bitter chocolate and sexy oak. Supersweet, lush and highly concentrated, with exotic flavors of black raspberry and milk chocolate. Very suave, inviting wine, finishing with very fine tannins, superb length, and a note of espresso. Impressive and utterly seductive.

Bright ruby. Roasted, medicinal aromas of currant, espresso, bitter chocolate and minerals. Thick, fat and sweet, with compelling opulence for a cabernet-dominated wine (this is Seillan's Pauillac blend) and an almost exotic berry flavor. Finishes with sweeter tannins than the 2001 Muse, perhaps a testament to the superiority of high-quailty cabernet sauvignon.

Full medium ruby. Superripe aromas of chocolate, leather, gunflint, coffee and menthol. Sweet, large-scaled and superripe, with a sappy freshness for such a lush, rich wine. Finishes very long and aromatic, with the tannins nicely supported by the wine's huge material. Winemaker Seillan considers the young 2002 to be more elegant than the 2001.

Bright ruby. Aromas of black raspberry, coffee, chocolate, licorice and spicy oak. Less sweet and more penetrating than the 2001, with gripping flavors of dark berries, licorice, menthol and chocolatey torrefaction. Today this is behaving more like a Pauillac than the 2001. Firmly tannic, strong and long on the aftertaste.

Deep ruby. Cassis, violet, licorice and espresso on the nose. Intensely flavored and sharply delineated, with lovley early sweetness and excellent volume. Powerful flavors of berry liqueur and violet. Winemaker Chris Carpenter uses 100% new barrels that he describes as soft. The wine's tannins, he says, come entirely from the fruit. Finishes firmly tannic and very long. A very strong showing.

Full medium ruby. Blackberry and licorice on the nose, with some oaky torrefaction. Sweet, broad, dense and sexy, with medicinal black cherry and dark berry flavors complicated by chocolate and spice cake. Downright velvety in the middle palate, but its building tannins are a bit youthfully aggressive (and will be smoothed out with a fining, according to winemaker Chris Carpenter). Very long and promising.

Full ruby. Briary dark berries, licorice and tar, lifted by a floral nuance. Impressively concentrated but tightly wound and backward, with powerful flavors of briary berries, chocolate and truffle. Finishes with chewy, firm tannins and excellent aromatic persistence. This has turned out very well, but calls for at least five or six years of bottle aging.