Carmel Road Cabernet Sauvignon - Crowd PleasingThe 2018 Carmel Road Cabernet Sauvignon opens with an attractive aroma loaded with vanilla, dark berry fruit and coffee.Taking a sip reveals a very smooth and tasty medium-bodied Cab with lots of oak influence. Featuring similar flavors to the nose plus a little caramel and other sweet oak notes, this is a crowd pleasing wine that should make a good, highly affordable burger wine.It ends dry, long and grippy with a mouth puckering finish full of lasting vanilla notes.

Balanced and loaded with bright black cherry fruit and a bit of spice. It has an earthy profile too.

We have a friend who prefers this wine over all others and we can see why. For the price — often seen for far less – you get a melangê of red berry flavors. It’s simple but oh so delicious.

Now that we’ve tasted the 2017, that seems even more apt because this was such an awesome food wine. When we opened it, it looked young and fresh, like blackberry or black cherry juice. It had those fruits on the nose, too, along with some minerals. “It smells like it’s going to be more giving than the first two,” Dottie said, and she was right. It was filled with fruit, good tannins, integrated oak and a bit of bittersweet chocolate, but – even with all of that – had a medium weight that created elegance. “There’s layers and layers of stuff in here,” Dottie said. We picked up basil and rosemary, which made John say: “Stuffing!” It’s hard to imagine a wine that would be better with Thanksgiving dinner. “This cries out for food,” Dottie said, and, indeed, with her pork with capers and green olives, it was a weep-worthy pairing. As we continued to drink, the finish became dryer and dryer “like it’s vacuuming my mouth,” Dottie said. It picked up some anise and crushed lavender. Two hours after opening, the wine had more black olives and lean tannins. It was beautiful and ready to drink now, although it should age beautifully. There’s nothing obvious about this wine, which is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 3% Merlot.

Notes of espresso, dark chocolate, and toast follow ripe blackberry, minerality and weight on the palate.

These Are The Best Wines to Sip On for the 2021 Holiday SeasonChardonnay is notoriously rich in texture for a white wine, and this particular vintage plays up its characteristic fullness to delightful effect. With notes of pear and cream, this delicious vino hails from the Yarra Valley of Australia, and its vineyard has been named in Wine & Spirits' Top 100 Wineries of the Year six times since 2013.

Appearance: Deep opaque ruby.Nose: Blackberry fruit, mint, pencil lead and coffee bean. Palate: A tightly woven, almost ungiving, wine that reflects its youth and Howell Mountain origins. The most pronounced flavors are blackberry, oak, herbs and coffee bean. Look for more forward as this wine acquires some age. Best to keep this wine for several years before serving with steak or prime rib.

Vérité Le Désir is one of three Bordeaux-style blends crafted by Vérité in 2018, a hallmark vintage for many California wines. Structured around cabernet franc—with the restrained addition of merlot and malbec—Le Désir shines for showcasing the characteristic flavors and aromas of its primary grape: ripe raspberry, cranberry, and red currant represent the fruitiness of cabernet franc, while savory notes of sage, mint, and cinnamon provide complexity. A bold finish and bright acidity render it a playful wine to drink in its youth; however, those characteristics also suggest that the wine has excellent cellaring potential.

Matanzas Creek Merlot Alexander Valley 2018 has the soft mellowness you anticipate from quality merlot. Very good acidity, a real asset for food pairing. Inky color. Good on pop-and-pour; it becomes more mellow and approachable after extended exposure to air in the glass. Pair with lamb; grilled meats; roast beef; filet mignon; gourmet burgers; grilled or roast chicken; roast pork and pork loin; mushrooms; Swiss cheese, gruyere, parmesan, havarti, gouda, brie, camembert cheese.

Opened to murmurs of pleasure around the table this Pinot Noir has it all. Silky smooth notes of dried rose hips, balanced fruit and cedar spice. Created using a blend of Burgundian and Californian techniques this comes from Jackson FamilyWines, a founder of IWCA.

As usual, the Mt. Brave Merlot 2018 displays all the hallmarks of vines grown at 1,400 to 1,800-foot elevation — a dense, dark ruby-purple hue; notes of cedar, tobacco, sage and chaparral; threads of intense and concentrated blueberries, black currants and plums, permeated by graphite and flint-like minerality; a few moments in the glass tease out hints of violets and lavender, bitter chocolate and loam; the structure is monumental, mountain-like, and tannins embody the old Napa Valley adage about the iron fist in a velvet glove; the finish deep, granitic, supple. Try from 2023 through 2032 to ’35. Exceptional.

South African Chardonnay Will Blow You AwayIn 2014, Jackson Family Wines entered into a partnership with Antony Beck of Beck Family Estates. Today, they jointly manage the Fijnbosch farm in Stellenbosch, with the goal of making Chardonnay wines that can rival the top Grand Crus of Burgundy. Released at $80, their inaugural 2013 vintage of Capensis thrilled the critics with its crystalline fruit, subtle oak, and delicate textural richness. It is a brilliant wine, although Capensis is something of an outlier; the vast majority of Cape Chardonnay is never that expensive.

The Wine You Should Always Drink When Watching This Classic Fall MovieSoul FoodSoul Food may not be a film about the holidays but its plot is rooted in the tradition of gathering around the dining table with family — and what's more seasonally appropriate than that? This 1997 comedy-drama is best viewed with a hearty meal and soulful wine close by, like a Chianti. The grape that’s used to make Chianti is called Sangiovese and it produces dry wines with red-fruit and dried-herb notes. In other words, Chianti is oh so delicious with a plate full of food.Pair It With: Chianti

For those times when only a fantastic balance between sturdy structure and plummy hedonism will do.

A silvery minerality dominates, with fresh apple and citrus flavors moderated by light, toasty notes.

Distinctively delicious with intense flavors of grape skins, tart orange, and white-pepper spiciness in the finish.

The Best Low-Calorie Wines, from Cabernet to Rosé1. Kendall-Jackson Lower Calorie ChardonnayBEST OVERALLKendall-Jackson is a California winery that makes affordable wines and regularly racks up awards, including a winery of the year award in 2017. They also have a line of low-calorie wines, such as the Avant Chardonnay. It has just 85 calories and 3 grams of carbs per serving.

The Truman and Brooks names are from small Clarendon vineyard border roads and Hickinbotham 2019 Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon has 14.5% alcohol, is deep garnet and shows berry pastille aromas and vibrant blackberry front-palate flavour. The middle features Maraschino cherry, spearmint, briar and vanillin oak and a finish of chalky tannins.

This expressive, 14.5% alcohol, Hickinbotham 2019 The Revivalist Merlot shines brick red and has scents of violets. The front palate shows fleshy mulberry flavour, middle palate bramble jelly, mint, herb and mocha oak elements and a finish of earthy tannins.

With deep purple hues, 14.5% alcohol and scents of raspberry and cinnamon, the Hickinbotham 2019 Brooks Road Shiraz has intense, ripe plum front-palate flavour. The middle palate displays cassis, spice, truffle, dark chocolate and savoury oak and minty tannins play at the finish.

No additions of any kind here, not even sulphites. It's deeply coloured with a wonderfully vibrant, sweet raspberry and blackberry nose, with some spice. The palate shows dense fruits, with a touch of blackcurrant jam.

Dark fruit notes with hints of black licorice,olives and leather. Grapes from high elevation to render a medium body but serious merlot.

Also made by Chris Carpenter but using grapes from Mt. Veeder, this merlot is lusher with forward, concentrated black cherry and cassis flavors with hints of cedar. Very delicious.

Winemaker Chris Carpenter takes advantage of the Howell Mountain fruit to craft a bold merlot that is blended with a bit of petit verdot and tannat. Although it shows promise for a long and illustrious future, the wine has approachable plum and blackberry fruit character. Nice dried herb aromas and long finish.

Since its beginning in 1977, this Sonoma County winery has been crafting award-winning wines. Some of the earlier vintages were crafted by the great Merry Edwards and the legacy continues on today. The winery is located in Sonoma's Bennett Valley and is known for their Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot. The 2019 is showing awesome now and will be a real crowd pleaser. Aromatics of passion fruit, white peaches and jasmine notes fill the glass. Succulent flavors of honeydew melon, ripe pears and hints of spice coat the palate. The wine has mouthwatering acidity and excellent balance.