A restrained style, showing pepper, cherry, raspberry, and tea notes, finishes with smooth tannins.

Complex, with concentrated earthy currant, anise, mineral, sage, plum, cedar, and spice, turning polished.

Smooth, ripe and rich, with juicy cherry, currant, plum, anise, herb, mineral and spice flavors. Finishes with supple tannins and pretty oak shadings.

Firm, tightly wound and austere, with a compact band of earth, mineral, currant, sage, tea and cherry, Turns tannic and concentrated on the finish, where the flavors sail on.

Wonderful harmony and finesse, with layers of ripe, rich currant, black cherry, toasty oak, spice, coffee and cedar notes. Turn supple, elegant and spicy on the finish, where the flavors linger.

Dense, earthy and detailed, with firm, chewy tannins, wrapped around a core of currant, dried plum, earth, anise and sage. Firms up on the finish, where the tannins are quite evident.

Firm for a '96, with earthy tannins and a tasty core of ripe plum, currant and cherry flavors accented by a touch of sage and spice.

Lots of upfront spicy and plummy flavors, turning elegant and refined. Finishes with a spicy richness and firm, supple tannins.

A clean syrah with everything in sync. Blueberries, raspberries and tobacco on the palate. A bit earthy.

Juicy fruit, more than peppery spice, is the emphatic theme of this open and up-front young Syrah, and the wine is helped along its way by a nice touch of sweet, slightly vanillin oak. Its soft and easy mouthfeel further contributes to its overall immediacy…

A simple, varietally true merlot, its meaty cherry fruit and round, supple texture make it easy to enjoy.

Rich oak, ripe apples and wisps of flower team nicely in the open, easy to access aromas here, and the wine follows with similarly oak-enriched, ripe fruit flavors of medium depth. Rounded on entry, then noticeably firmed by plenty of crisping acids, this one is presently a little clipped at the end, but it should smooth into a bit more length with bottle age.

Jess Jackson purchased two estate vineyards for the Lokoya Napa Valley wines, one on Mt. Veeder and one on Howell Mountain. Winemaker Marco DiGuilio purchases fruit for this Diamond Mountain wine as well as the Rutherford bottling. The Lokoya Cabernets are designed to show off the varied characteristics of Napa's growing regions. Diamond Mountain produces this dense and chocolatey wine, its pungent fruit intensity balanced by equally intense tannins. The tannins have an austerity and dramatic power, struggling for supremacy with the generous nature of the fruit. The battle lasts through a long finish, and won't be resolved for years.

Blending the lush fruit of Alexander Valley fills with the power of Napa cabernet, Cardinale turns in wine of tough and supple contrasts. It has enough sweet, delicious fruit for the hedonist, and enough tannic structure for the puritan. Fine and juicy, staunch and reserved.

This Rutherford wine has a sleek structure, focused on richness and supple fruit. The tannins are soft, enriching the texture, deepening the wine to earthy tones and dark chocolate flavors. It's generous, balanced and the most accessible of the three Lokoyas. Finely made.

Bigger, richer in every way than the regular cuvee, delivering waves of rich, ripe, spicy fruit in a creamy, lushly-textured package. Long, delicious finish.

Oak aromatics fill the wine with brown spices, compressing the powerful black fruit, seeming to add to the pungent dry spice in the mouth. This is strong stuff, the extract is intense, and yet it brings food to mind as a big, tough nebbiolo might.

A Meursault-like, medium-bodied wine, with green-apple, peach and pear aromas. Smoky and oaky, with rich, soft, spicy flavors. Flashy and opulent.

Hints of tropical fruits, vanillin oak, nutmeg and a vague carnal quality on the nose. Ripe peach flavor complicated by coconut oak; juicy acidity gives the wine structure and shape Finishes with a rather sweet note of orange blossom.

Bright, deep red-ruby. Red berries, plum and smoky oak on the nose. Supple, ripe and harmonious, with good sweetness but modest flesh and depth of fruit. Initially light tannins turned a bit dry as the wine opened in the glass.

An easy-drinking Sauvignon Blanc that has some slight residual sweetness, in the K-J style. Citrus and grassy aromas and flavors, clean and zesty, with added interest from small amounts of Semillon and Viognier. A nice "beginner's" wine.

K-J's signature ripe, ripe fruit was definitely on display here. Intense plum-berry flavors with undertones of chocolate filled the mouth; on the nose, however, were not so pleasant musty, wet wool aromas.

Firm in structure, featuring red currant, toasted oak and herb flavors, finishing lean.

Medium-bodied, with a smoky, rustic, barnyard-streak to the black cherry and tar flavors. Finishes with leathery tannins.

Ripe and concentrated with a tight core of mineral and smoky black cherry flavors.