All about tar, this grenache opens to the lanolin and green, woody-herb scents of rosemary-laced lamb. Voluptuous in its oaken depths, inviting in its fragrance of strawberry leaf, the wine offers persistent and fresh flavors while the tannins seem to stick against the walls of the mouth, then slowly fade away. From bush vines planted in deep sands in 1946, this grows at the highest block at Yangarra, up to 680 feet above the Gulf St. Vincent. Peter Fraser allows the grapes to ferment spontaneously, half of them as whole berries, then matures the free-run juice on its lees in used French oak and ceramic eggs.

There’s a lemony high note to this wine’s acidity, lifting the floral scents over flavors of green apple. White flowers and a hint of oak frame the fruit for a balanced, elegant white.

This fabled vineyard from the Chalone appellation gave a wine with a lovely scent of sun-warmed berries, strawberries and juice. There’s a back note of black tea and chaparral herbs carried on a mulled-wine texture. A mid-weight red for ribs

There’s a sweet molasses note up front, then the fruit settles into its acid structure, integrated with the tannins. Skycrest Vineyard tops out at 2,000 feet above sea level, a steep hillside providing the fruit for this pinot.

Forward and spicy, this has a horehound scent and shy red berry flavors. It’s mouth filling, with a dark weight and a firm finish. For a smoked pork chop.

Tasted off the Earl's wine list in early March. Winemaker Peter Fraser is behind this single vineyard McLaren Vale shiraz grown biodynamically at 180m on the estimated 54 million-year-old North Maslin Sands, a mix of sand and ironstone that covers a dozen unique blocks. It has an unusual aromatic dark fruit aroma with bright spice that lifts the wine out of the glass with style. The tannins are supple and speak to an impeccably balanced wine. The long and entertaining finish pitches more blueberry, blackberry, and black licorice. The texture, as always, is amazing. Technically, 10% of the fruit remained as whole bunches, with the remaining fruit destemmed and mechanically sorted. 50% remained as whole berries, while the other 50% was lightly broken. It was native fermented in open fermenters, and finally kept for 12 months in 25 percent new French oak.

In the glass La Muse is ruby-garnet colored with a purple rim. It is composed of 90 percent Merlot and the balance Cabernet Franc and Malbec. It has heady aromas of black raspberry jam, red plum and saddle leather. There’s a seamless transition to the palate with ripe fruit flavors and touches of flint, mocha and tobacco leaf. The tannins are pleasantly grippy with balanced acidity. Drink now or over the next 20 years.

You may not know it, but La Crema has been producing wine for over 40 years. This 2022 Sauvignon Blanc is part of that proud heritage. This offers light lemon-lime, quince, honeysuckle, resin, apricot and guava notes. It’s a lighter style wine that makes it inherently better with a diversity of food. The acidity is in check due mainly to the use, predominately, of stainless steel, and just 27% went into neutral oak allowing for a flinty, tactile expression.

Hints of almonds and savory herbs in the aroma accompany Bosc pears and vanilla on the palate as this handsome, toasty wine balances fruitiness and an oak-aged spiciness for a complex and complete expression. Best through 2028. Editors’ Choice.

Many years ago, I walked the early Vérité vineyard blocks with winegrower Pierre Seillan, whose take on complexity was simple, “Every hillside, every elevation and every aspect offers us a different micro-cru. From the beginning, the pure expression of these unique sites has defined our winemaking philosophy.” It makes it easy to understand the birth of the Vérité trilogy: La Joie, La Muse, and La Desire, each exploring a different grape while reflecting its Sonoma origins. In 2019 the vintage began with a healthy water supply in the soil from a warm winter of storms. Budbreak was early in what would be a warm year, complete with some heat spikes. Merlot is at the heart of la Muse, and it comes with a series of complex flavour layers. Inspired by the Pomerol style, the first release was 21 years ago. Seillan works with fifty micro-crus in Eastern Sonoma when he blends this wine. The fruit is California opulent, but Seillan plays that off against dried herbs, woodland spices, and French oak ageing to achieve a level of harmony seldom seen in California. 2019 is aged 16 months in 95 percent new French oak, and the blend is 90/5/5/ merlot, cabernet franc, and malbec from Alexander Valley, Bennett Valley, Chalk Hill, and Knights Valley.

The 2019 Pinot Noir La Crête is a powerful, expressive wine. Very spicy to begin, the nose explodes with cola, tea leaves, charcuterie,pipe tobacco and dark spices over a deep core of raspberry jam.The medium-bodied palate is powerful yet elegantly structured with a frame of powdery tannins, bright bursts of mouth watering acidity and continually unwinding, spicy accents on the extended finish. There's a sense of latency to this wine that suggests graceful evolution in bottle over the next 10-15 years. This will be releasedin April of 2023.

Pale ruby-purple, the 2018 Pinot Noir Slope takes some time in the glass to reveal scents of cranberry sauce, orange peel, charcuterie and flinty streaks that make the generosity on the palate all the more surprising. Medium-bodied, it's bursting with layer after layer of concentrated, savory fruit and is loaded with floral perfume.Grainy and fresh, it offers a harmonious structural balance and glides effortlessly into an incredibly long, detailed finish. Wow!

Pale ruby-purple, the 2018 Pinot Noir The Sum has alluring scents of cranberry sauce, tea leaves, gravel dust and iron with meaty undertones and wafts of iodine. The medium-bodied palate is grainy and refreshing with concentrated, savory fruit and a flourish of spicy accents across the long, detailed finish. With its structural harmony and detailed intensity, it's a great candidate for the cellar.

The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Speciale was aged for 24 months in French and American oak barrels and comes from several vineyards, including Lasseter, Monte Rosso, Murray Ranchand Smothers-Remick Ridge. It is incredibly expressive, at its peak between supple fruit and savory maturity. Deep ruby, the nose is surprisingly detailed, holding on to a core of black currant andcherry fruit. It offers up continually shifting nuances of dried lavender and rosemary, soy sauce, aged leather, cured beef and the iron-like mineral tones characteristic of many of the ArrowoodCabernets. Powerful but weightless, the full-bodied palate isintense and pure, with layered perfume, powdery tannins,seamless freshness and a very long finish. It will continue to hold inthe cellar for another decade. 490 cases were made.

Pale ruby-purple, the 2018 Pinot Noir Estate Cuvée has a pure,detailed perfume of lilac, blueberries, aniseed, tea leaves and woodsmoke. The medium-bodied palate has a powerful frame of grainy tannins and mouthwatering acidity that elevates its nuanced, floral flavors, and it finishes very long and layered.

Pale ruby-purple, the 2018 Pinot Noir Triple Black Slopes is powerful and perfumed! It explodes from the glass with a sultry perfume of lilac, blood orange, tea leaves and conifer with anintense core of red cherry and blueberry. The medium-bodied palate offers firm, ripe tannins and seamless acidity to support its concentrated fruit, and its long, spicy finish hints at more to come.It's a great candidate for cellaring.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Clairière comes from vines top-grafted to the 667 clone in 2018. It has deep, broody aromas of blackberry and boysenberry preserves, brewed tea, bergamot, aniseed and cola,with singular herbal and floral tones that set it apart in this lineup.The medium-bodied palate is surprisingly powerful, offering abundant, finely chalky tannins, energetic acidity, loads of complex,detailed flavors and a very long, nuanced finish.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Emery comes from newly defined parcels inthe Emery block at Willakenzie estate. "In 2019, we carved outsome pieces of Emery that looked different," winemaker Erik Kramer explained. "If the vines look that different, something is going on, and there's no way it's not affecting the grapes. Now we have the estate and the space to engage in that type of detective work." The parcels, planted to 667, 777 and Pommard clone vines, run along a central ridge of the estate from around 600-700 feet in elevation. Medium ruby, it has very pretty scents of red cherry and raspberry with nuances of rooibos tea, star anise, lilac and mushroom. The medium-bodied palate unfolds its complex flavor layers slowly, framed by abundant, chalky tannins and bursts of mouth watering acidity, and it finishes with notable length and detail.

The 2019 Chardonnay La Crête, the inaugural release of this wine,comes predominantly from newer Chardonnay vines planted at Willakenzie Estate. "As we add more Chardonnay to the estate, I have been in the process of isolating blocks," winemaker Erik Kramer explained. "It's my job as a winemaker to find where on the property the best wine is made. I don't think we could have made Chardonnay like this from the old plantings. This is a better location, and it gets protracted ripening." The La Crête features expressive aromas of white peach, honeycomb, pastry and lilac with top notes of lime peel. The medium-bodied palate explodes with concentrated, layered flavors carried by tangy acidity andsaline tones, and it finishes with tremendous length and floral perfume. It's an impressive first release that illustrates the potential for world-class Chardonnay in the Willamette Valley.

The 2018 Pinot Noir La Crête is a new wine from Willakenzie, a result of winemaker Erik Kramer's quest to identify the best blocks of vines on the estate. Medium ruby-purple, it has generous scentsof black and red cherry preserves and accents of tar, licorice,potpourri and mushroom. It features concentrated, spicy flavors that glide seamlessly across the mouth, and a flourish of earthy accents appears on the extended finish. Juicy, perfumed and alluring, it drinks beautifully straight from the bottle.

The 2018 Pinot Noir Block 14, grown on volcanic soils, was matured for 16 months in barrel and an additional year in bottle. It has apale ruby color and wild berries on the nose with swirls of spice and floral perfume. The medium-bodied palate features streaks of iron-like mineral character, concentrated berry fruits, a clay-like texture and seamless acidity. I love this ferrous, rocky expression.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Slope is pleasantly restrained and earthy.Medium ruby-purple in color, it has intense aromas of cranberries,blueberries, potpourri, tobacco and tea leaves. The medium-bodied palate is chalky and fresh with concentrated, mineral-driven fruitsand a very long finish.

The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Smothers-Remick Ridge Vineyardwas the first vintage that Arrowood decided to bottle this section ofthe Smothers Vineyard on its own; it was previously blended into the Reserve Speciale. "The blocks I use for the reserve are very structural," says winemaker Kristina Shideler. "They bring concentration but not all the aromatics. This block showed quintessential, forward red cherry fruit and was less structured than the other blocks, so we started bottling it on its own." Grapes come from a western-facing, rocky section of the vineyard, where the initially planted Merlot was grafted over to Cabernet Sauvignon.It was matured for 29 months in French and American oak and bottled without fining or filtration. Deep ruby-purple, it offers an endless core of Morello cherries, with top notes of star anise,licorice and lilac and bass tones of mushroom powder, soy sauce and graphite. The palate offers freshness and lift without sacrificing intensity or power. Its tannins are grainy and gently softening, and it finishes with a flourish of spice. It is surprisingly youthful and has plenty of life ahead in the cellar. 248 cases produced.

The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Smothers-Remick Ridge Vineyard was aged for 32 months in 74% new French oak. Opaque ruby-purple, its aromas are layered and detailed, a core of blueberry andblack cherry accented by star anise, violet, leather and graphite.The full-bodied palate has alluring, powdery tannins, dynamic flavors ranging from violet to savory spice and incredible length.220 cases were made.

The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Réserve Spéciale matured for 32 months in 70% new French oak and was bottled without fining or filtration. It has an opaque ruby-purple color and singular, arresting aromas of licorice, star anise, rose petal, orange peel and leather,which complement an ocean of Morello cherry fruit at the core. The full-bodied palate is powerful and ripe, with loads of clay-textured tannins and generous fruit still curled into a youthful fist. This has the ingredients for long-term cellaring and will require plenty more bottle time to fully unfold. 304 cases were made.