a rich, buttery, full-malolactic Chardonnay bottled with no fining or filtration. It has plenty of power & is extremely friendly. Drink it over the next year.

9500 cases, has an opaque purple color as well as a powerful constitution. There is no herbaceousness to the flavors of this surprisingly big & flavorful effort. Look for it to round into shape in 2-3 years & last for up to 15.

The 1999 Sonoma Sauvignon Blanc exhibits aromas and flavors of honeysuckle, citrus, and grapefruit in its light to medium-bodied, refreshing personality. It should be drunk over the next year.

Reveals an impressive, saturated purple color, and a blackberry and and crème de cassis-scented nose... It has copious fruit... because this wine is certainly concentrated and very well-made just

It is a straightforward, lemony, melon, and grapefruit-scented and flavored wine, with elegance, crisp acidity, and light to medium body. Drink it up, as it already seems to be drying out.

As longtime readers know, the Journey produced by Matanzas Creek is one of an increasing number of absurdly priced, good yet unexciting California wines. Of course, one can cite many examples from France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and elsewhere that are overpriced, but isn't it time consumers begin saying no to wines that prey on a group of consumers with more discretionary income than taste? There are 235 six-packs of this wine, which has a dark ruby color, as well as earthy, cherry currant, and herb-tinged aromatics intermixed with toasty new oak. The wine tastes attenuated as well as austere. If my instincts are correct, it is already beginning to drop its fruit. Caveat emptor. This chunky, spicy wine is a bad value at one-third the price. Drink it over the next 4-5 years.

The 1997 Merlot is a straightforward, medium-bodied, monolithic offering with good cranberry and cherry fruit intermixed with a touch of herbs, wood, and earth. Lake many overpriced California wines, it is too expensive for what is delivers.

The 1999 Chardonnay, which was put through 00% malolactic fermentation in barrel, is a smoky, well-textured, richer effort, with notes of creamy tropical fruits and spices. This clean, medium to full-bodied white is best drunk over the next 1-2 years.

The red wines are better than the whites & cover a lot of styles. You can order the '94 Stonestreet Russian Rvr. Pinot Noir ($58).

remarkably elegant and polished, with ripe, sweet, juicy plum and wild berry, turning elegant and sophisticated, with a long, detailed finish.

*high price, high quality *deep, elegant fruit - This is the top of the top range of Kendall-Jackson's 'Jackson Family Farms Wines' and the fruit comes 79% from Napa, 21% from Sonoma with an overall blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot. The colour is deep & vibrant, the fruit beautifully balanced, with none of the over-extraction of many California 'super-stars', and the wine almost but not quite ready to drink.

"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.