"Medium, dry, Bright raspberry and black currant aroma, spicy backnote; luscious fleshy flavors, good tannins, big fruit, good length. Value."

"Low intensity nose, light tropical fruit and caramel notes; medium palate, crisp acidity, citrus and pineapple accents.

A deep well of dense fruit, cool, rich, exploding with flavor into the finish. That explosion is so tied to flinty tannins that the wine stays tight, as if the bottle were blasted by a shotgun yet stood there unscathed.

...displays smoky tomato and cherry notes in the nose, medium body, tart aidity in mid-palate, but good fruit and depth in the finish.

An authentic tasting, light to meduim-bodied, soft Merlot offering aromas and flavors of cherries, herbs, earth, and berry fruit.

Readers looking for a good Spatlese-styled Reisling should check out the 1999…from Monterey. It reveals excellent orange, citrus, and apple blossom chacteristics, light to medium body, and a good, crisp finish with just a touch of residual sugar.

…crisp, elegant, citrusy offering with good fruit and ripeness, medium body, and a dry finish.

Better is the honeyed grapefruit/passion fruit-filled, aromatic, pure, vibrant 1999 Sauvignon Blanc Vintner's Reserve.

A bit of butter and hints of burnt toast sit atop baked-apple elements in the moderately dense and fairly outgoing aromas here...Medium-full-bodied and slanted to softness, this one imitates sweetness along the way...

Rather than seeking out the terroir character of a particular site, Cardinal is a blend from a number of exceptinoal vineyards in both Napa and Sonoma. Winemaker Charles Thomas uses that flexibility to build a style of wine that's bold and full of personality. In '97, there's a deep well of super dense fruit that comes across as cool and rich, then explodes with flavor as it expands into the finish. That explosion is so tied to mineral and flint tannins that the wine remains seemingly tight.

Cambria is not as well known as it should be in Canada. This is what Santa Barbara pinot is all about. The reserve is clear notch about regular version in intensity, flavour and wieght---with superb balance. Look for gobs of cranberry/black cherry fruit flavours in along luscios, showy finish

The 1999 Merlot (a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, with 84% of the wine coming from Sonoma and 16% from Napa) is extravagantly concentrated, with a layered, expansive mid-palate, and a blockbuster finish. The wine is out-and-out massive with spectacular levels of fruit and glycerin. The basic characteristics are lavish richness (cassis, coffee, chocolate galore) and a low acid, multitextured, flamboyant finish. In short, this is an amazing wine. It should be drinkable young, but with an uncommon ageability of 20-25 years. This wine, which Seillan calls wine without compromise, is aged in 100% new French oak for about 13 months.

One of the most beautiful wines in the Stature series is the impressive 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon Stature. Sourced from vineyards such as Veeder Peak and Andy Beckstoffer's To-Kalon Vineyard, it offers up creme de cassis aromas intermixed with new saddle leather, vanilla, spice box, and minerals. Full-bodied, rich, and seamless, this voluptiously-textured, thick, juicy Cabernet Sauvignon can be drunk now or cellared up for two decades.

Ripe and supple blackberry and cassis flavors meld with tannins as smooth as pencil lead to create the rich, creamy texture of this wine. It's all balled up in the middle, fat and bursting with flavor as a ripe black currant late on the vine. In the finish, it turns from the all black to reveal red fruits and a generous intensity, not yet long, but a wine that should lengthen as it ages to great effect.

...loaded with tropical fruit. With huge quantities of glycerin, it cuts a broad mouthfeel, and has a textured, beautifully pure mid-palate and finish.

"...superb...displays more earth and mineral characteristics in its buttered caramel, pineapple, and custard-filled aromas and flavors. Full-bodied and rich, with terrific texture and a long finish, it should drink well..." *Mr. Parker originally reviewed this wine prior to its release. At the time of his initial review, it was known as the "Durell Vineyard" Chardonnay. Today, that product is know as "Sonoma Valley" and is the same wine.

Extracted to a black and concentrated density, this wine grips the palate with smoky, warm fruit and vast stretches of tannin. The dark plum and sharper cranberry flavors hit up against the tannin and crash into savory waves.

Super-rpeness lends this wine a complex scent of leather and fresh prunes. It's tight , yet it carries the Port-like richness of an old-style Napa red, rich as the feel of the leather seats in an old Mercedes convertible. The complexity lasts through the finish, evolving as it takes on air in the glass to reveal soft layers of mety fruit and herbs. This should age gracefully.

...dense purple-colored (Merlot) is superb. From a vineyard planted at 2, 500 feet with very poor soils...this formidably-endowed Merlot poseses aromas and flavors of roasted coffee, black fruits, iron, and smoke. Full-bodied, chewy, and muscular, yet accessible, it should drink well...

The glass-staining purple hue shows off the power of fruit, though for now it stnds behind a wall of toasted, caramelized oak. Jammy and tough, this mountain cabernet is a rough black wine that needs plenty of time to resolve.

"...exhibits copious quantities of pure black currant fruit intermixed with cedar, smoke, and spice box. It is full-bodied, opulent, rich...

With abundant amounts of Asian spices, minerals, black cherries, and cassis as well as admirable structure, this fruit-dominated, full-bodied, large-scaled, opulent wine should drink well...

This beautifully crafted red has a fine depth of color and a ripe black currant aroma. The clean scent of fruit grows more sophisticated with an overlay of dark green herbs, leather and a glimmer of burnished oak. Youthfully tannic for now, it's already well suited to a steak, but should prove more complex and satisfying with several years of age.

"Even better is the outstanding 1999...low-acid, fleshy, full-bodied Chardonnay. Offering up notes of passion fruit, apricot, peach, and honeysuckle, it is full-bodied, rich and ostentatious." *Mr. Parker originally reviewed this wine prior to its release. At the time of his initial review, it was known as the "Clark Vineyard" Chardonnay. Today, that product is known as "Arroyo Seco" and is the same wine.

...reveals more acidity and smokiness, without the voluptuous fatness possessed by the 1998. It is certainly fine, with plenty of tropical fruit and nicely integrated wood.