From a specific vineyard parcel, is completely different. With the grapes coming from shallower soils, the nose shows minerality and slate, while the smoky flavors include butterscotch, lemon zest and marshmallow toast. It has a certain Burgundian leanness to it, and while the wine is rich, it's streamlined and very focused.

It epitomizes the house style, with a pineapple and tropical fruit nose, as well as lush and buttery fruit forward flavors on the palate, tempered with both oak and ginger spice. The goal, explains Holloway, 'is to integrate all the components and flavors.'

Drawing fruit from cool Mendocino County, this wine is a real mouthful of raspberry / blackberry fruit. Full throttle zing with a long and fruity finish. Nice oak frame.

Drawing fruit from cool Mendocino County, this wine is a real mouthful of raspberry/blackberry fruit. Full throttle zing with a long and fruity finish. Nice oak frame.

Full-bodied dry red wine; medium deep magenta. Aromas and flavors of crushed dark fruits blackberries and black plums. Rich concentrated and well-knit. Tannins from fruit, big "guy wine" but balanced, well-structured. Alcohol about 15 percent, but not hot thanks to ripe fruit. Oak well-handled. Ageable.

highly recommended wine, Soft, undeveloped ripe strawberry fruit. Well structured and polished wine.

recommended wine

recommended wine

Warm fruit, well balanced, nice chewy tannins. Very good wine.

Fresh mildly blossomy, slightly pineappley fruit emerges nicely with balanced oak and hints of sweet butter in the immediate aromas of this juicy youngster, and its open flavors run parallel in their bias to tropical fruit.

Although its overtly leesy nose is almost singularly keyed on nutty, burnt bread elements, this offering comes through with a generous dose of sweet pear-like fruit on the palate and its open flavors find a creamy streak of oak instead of the expected repeat of toast and char. Nicely rounded and a touch oily in feel, it finishes with a lingering mix of apples, pears and oak and should do fine service as a juicy partner to grilled chicken dishes.

recommended wine

Our favorite of the experimental clones. The smoked bacon and underbrush aromas turn to a big mouthful of juicy black cherries and licorice, accented with a dusting of earth. It's a big, lush Pinot that finishes with chocolate-covered cherries.

The density of this wine is surprising. Not a wine for the meek, the rich, heady flavors of plum pudding and spice cake integrate well with dark fruits and earth.

Much meatier than the 115 bottling, 2A also folds in portobello mushroom aromas. The candied, dark cherry flavors are so rich there is a perception of sweetness. This wine finishes with great length and a touch of tea.

Fred Holloway's first full vintage started off with a bang. This big, complex Chardonnay has aromas of tropical fruit underscored by butterscotch and mint. The flavors burst with pineapple and a touch of menthol, while the long, buttery finish is perfectly complemented by racy acidity.

This wine has aged about like we expected to since we rated it 91points in our July 2001 issue. Big tropical fruit is still going strong, backed up by toasty, mentholly oak.

Clearly an exceptional wine … the plummy fruit coming up after plenty of air, the texture rich and mouth coating … that of a wine packaged for age … completely black, the oak more apparent in a cinnamon savor. For me, it's just about great ingredients, made well, built to age.

This is deep and earthy, with leather and herbal accents. A powdery quality softens the full-blast cherry and plum fruit, which carries a touch of cola and oaky vanilla. The finish is top-shelf, with citrus peel, tea, dried spices, espresso and burnt toast. It's simultaneously rustic yet refined; the perfect match. Editor's Choice

Juicy dark fruit, toasty oak, nutmeg, caramel and pepper elements combine nicely in this substantial wine. It's juicy but structured, and turns more serious on the finish where firm tannins show on the long, tea- and spice- accented fade.

The toasty, smoky nose is a result of eight months in French oak. Sweet yellow-fruit flavors integrate well with a full creaminess in this simple but enjoyable quaff.