Eagle Point Vineyard. There's 19% Syrah & 5% Petite Sirah blended in, making for a succulent wine, with spicy, lively fruit leading the charge. There's enough acid to give it structure & balance, but not so much that the wine seems edgy or sour. Full bodied, mouthfilling, flavorful & distinctive.

Mendocino Ridge. More of that mountain intensity with very ripe fruit buttressed with spicy, mineral elements. Brambly, briary & spicy, leading into a fleshy, round, ripe, soft middle & a long, fruity finish. Good right now.

Zeni Vineyard. Tanic, alcoholic nose with a softer, rosier color tending toward brick. Old vines, soft, sweet, ancient flavors. The wine feels a little bit pushed - the alcohol is too high & the finish is harsh, tannic and hot.

Smooth style, with lots of vanilla cream and ripe berry fruit. Forward, inviting style of wine, with light tannins and a clean, focused finish. It's well balanced and professionally made...

Concentrated, brawny, with almost viscous flavors of chocolate, dried fruit & smoke lingering on the tannic finish.

Intense & lively, with sweet, jammy, raisiny black cherry, wild berry & nutty Sherry-like flavors that push the envelope in ripeness, finishing with some heat. Label indicates a credible 17.5% alcohol. Drink now through 2006. 275 cases made.

Dark, rich, chocolaty and still firmly tannic, with ripe cherry, herb and dusty cedar notes, touches of mineral and metallic flavors.

...intense fruity flavors. Sense the tropical fruit, apple, citrus and melon aromas and flavors. This Chardonnay has a crisp, lingering finish...

Bright tropical fruit nose and flavors, toasty oak, rich and round in the mouth. Very exotic.

Controversial. Some said it has sexy aromas with juicy plum on the palate. Others thought it hot and over-ripe

Rich, sassy and pleasurable, with ripe fruit. Great texture and good balance...

Julia's Vinyard. Smelling faintly of old wood & dried brush, this stolid, soft wine is clean enough, but its full, low energy flavors carry only the barest evidences of Pinot fruit & offer almost nothing of real pleasure.

Creamy oak is impossible to overlook in both the nose and flavors of this substantial Chardonnay, but sweet, gala-apple fruitiness is the wine's lodestar, and that attractive fruit persists despite a bit of late-arriving coarseness. Very well-made, this one gets better with a year or two of keeping.

Sharp at first, then airing into a well-mannered pinot, tight and cleanly fruited with raspberry flavors and the caramel tones of oak. Simple for now, though this should evolve more flavor complexity with time.

Moderately intense aromas of sweet, oak-enriched cherries and decently concentrated flavors of similarly sweet ad slightly spicy fruit make for lots appeal. The wine is smooth, fleshy and somewhat lush in palatefeel and comes with a persistant, fairly open finish.

Although suggesting a wine of size and fruity extract in the nose, this young, medium-full-bodied working is not quite so generous in the mouth, yet its cherry-like qualities provide a clear and inviting varietal stamp.

A light and simple riesling, its peach flavors touched by smoke, this is a clean, fresh white to chill as an aperitiff.

There's a firm sense of cool ripened fruit, a touch of apricot and light floral Notes, but the wine expresses little at the moment. It's cold closed off, needing time to evolve in the bottle. It may take a year or three, but when the wine does open it's clean balance should serve well.

A heavy wine, atypical of the appellation, which usually produces light-bodied and elegant Pinots. There's something earthy & thick about this one, almost rustic. The flavors are fruity but it lacks the delicacy an Anderson Vly Pinot Noir ought to have, and there's an unpleasant sting of acidity.

Supple, generous & round, its black cherry & floral flavors pick up a hint of chocolate on the finish. With the dish, the Zin loses a little of its youthful ebullience but becomes a bit classier. Tannins, often abundant in young, red wines, won't seem so harsh if paired with foods having fat or protein. Below: Spicy Pork works perfectly with Edmeads Zinfandel Mendocino '97.

Forward tropical fruit; round, lush flavors, tropical fruit notes, juicy with crisp acidity; good finish. Nice as a cocktail wine...

Challenging, with lots of stuff. Smooth yet deep. You don't drink it, you experience it, and it rewards you.

Challenging with lots of stuff. Smooth yet deep. You don't drink it, you experience it, and it rewards you.

shows overt & inviting red fruit aromas immediately upon opening & its cherry fruit flavors, with just a trace of underbrush for complexity, are light but not simple, balanced but not big.