For a lesson in indulgence, it would be remiss of us not to try an American wine. The 2017 Brewer Clifton Sta Rita Hills has it all. If you want hedonistic pleasure from your wine, this is the bottle you should take home. It’s generous on the palate, with lashings of sun-soaked tropical fruit, a delicate nuttiness and wafts of baked brioche. All these flavours come through on the palate, but there is plenty of refreshing acidity which keeps you grounded as your taste buds are delighted.

Pale translucent garnet in colour. Light red fruit and dill aromas. Dry with light acidity and tannins. Overall light bodied. Red fruit and dill on the palate. An understated Pinot.

Pale intensity, bright orange rose coloured in the glass. A very light tart red fruit nose. Medium body, lean with medium plus acidity. Mineral. Dry. Tart, fragrant, fresh red fruit flavour. A GREAT wine.

La Joie is the Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant cuvée of Vérité’s trio of La-La’s. Seillan’s “micro-cru” philosophy guides meticulous vineyard work in crafting this Sonoma County blend. Sourced from the Jackson Family’s vineyards in Bennett Valley, Alexander Valley, Knights Valley, and Chalk Hill, the 2018 La Joie is powerful and structured but also gives an impression of weightlessness in its expansive mouthfeel and pillowy tannin. Dried violet, cassis, sweet tobacco, bay leaf, and crushed stone aromas and flavors make for a remarkably long and serious wine that will continue to reveal itself over the course of several decades.

The Anakota wines are made by father-daughter duo Pierre and Hélène Seillan exclusively from a Knights Valley property, as part of the Jackson Family’s Spire Collection. It includes two wines: Helena Montana and Helena Dakota. The former is softer, and the 2018 exudes a gorgeous floral perfume of potpourri, dried rose, and anise. On the palate, sweet spices meld with chewier black fruit flavors, supported by broad, plush tannins.

The Jackson Family’s premium Stonestreet label draws from its Alexander Mountain Estate. Christopher’s Vineyard is the highest-elevation plot on the property and in the Alexander Valley at large. The wine displays the classic rocky density of California mountain Cabernet Sauvignon—concentrated and plummy, with gripping tannin. Slick blue tones and violet lift give further dimension to this brooding Cabernet.

Don’t let the pale pink color fool you. This highly rated wine is more of a red wine lover’s rosé. It comes from La Crema, known for its small lot, Burgundian-style chardonnay and pinot noir. The La Crema rosé, which is made from 100% pinot noir and fermented in stainless steel, is made in a rich style that’s bigger in body and complexity than the Diora. It’s a very flavorful wine that’s lightly tannic and tastes of strawberries, watermelon and citrus. It would go well with paella, salmon and chicken.

Oregon pinot noir has commanded a voice at the varietals table, as well. WillaKenzie Estate Yamhill-Carlton Pinot Noir 2018 had bright cherry flavors that yielded to a spicy olive tapenade and wet earth note on the finish. It was medium-bodied, and had a snappy acidity.

The John Sebastiano Vineyard Pinot Noir 2018 delved into blackberry and blueberry fruits - rich with some compelling tobacco pipe spice.

Unearthed at my local wine store, the Siduri Pisoni Vineyard 2014, made by Siduri founder Adam Lee, had aged gracefully with black cherry, blood orange and some forest floor sweeping in at the finish.

The Siduri Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2019 had Christmas spice, nutmeg and black cherry aromas. Black cherry flavors mingled with a fruitcake spice on the finish that has a supple mouthfeel.

Also using the coastal influence of the Pacific Ocean are pinot noir from California's Sonoma Coast. A blend of two vineyards four miles from the ocean and planted at 1,000 feet above sea level, the Hartford Court "Land's Edge Vineyards" Pinot Noir 2018 captured the many facets of the AVA in one bottle. Far Coast Vineyard near Annapolis is at the north end of the coast, on a second coastal ridge that softens the impact of the frigid Pacific air and thus ripens three to four weeks before its counterpart Seascape. Located on the first coastal ridge, Seascape is at the southern edge of the coast and stares down at Bodega Bay. It is shrouded in fog and high humidity throughout the growing season. Harvest in Seascape can happen as late as mid-October. Red fruit, eucalyptus, bacon fat, mushroom, ground cloves and baking spice-rack aromas rose from the glass. Flavors of cranberry, cherry and spice built layers of character into silky tannins and a great mouthfeel.

The Brewer-Clifton Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir 2018 is sublime. There's sweet cranberry, cherry, raspberry, tobacco and clove flavors. There's red and black fruit in a duel for attention on the nose. Fine tannins frame the fruit, yet there's an alluringly silky mouthfeel. A loamy earth scent is the aromatic lift that transports your senses right to the green hills, cold, windy days and ocean smell that permeate the AVA. Featured in the bottle are 3D, Hapgood and Machado vineyards: a snapshot of the entire appellation in one bottle.

Napa Valley's Top Winemakers on Why You Shouldn't Turn Your Nose Up at Red BlendsChris Carpenter, winemaker for the much-awarded Cardinale Cabernet blend, as well as single-vineyard wines under other widely acclaimed labels, gives the music analogy even more layers in terms of the understanding and skill necessary to make a delicious composite. “Great composers and song writers understand the highs, lows, timber, tonality, dynamics, and rhythm of sound. Flavor has a lot of those same characters, and blending wine for me is a way to bring the individual aspects of the singular wines together. Think of a great orchestra, with its different sections—the brass, the strings, percussion, winds. Each is playing and contributing a unique sound to the overall piece of music. And you as the listener enjoy that for the complexity of sound, the emotion it sparks, the memories it unearths and the shared experience with the audience.” (Pause here, just to appreciate the poetry and metaphorical acrobatics from Carpenter.)“Wine is exactly the same,” he concludes, “except you’re experiencing it as flavor combinations by way of the blending process.” And indeed, the seamless power and complex layers of minerality, dark chocolate, and dark fruit in his 2018 Cardinale Cabernet Sauvignon—which, according to Carpenter, includes 7 appellations and 32 individual wine lots—seem easily capable of inspiring profound emotion and memories.

Made with grapes grown in the cool-climate vineyards in Monterey Bay where the cold winds whip off the Pacific Ocean, this fragrant 100% Pinot Noir rosé possesses vivid aromas of strawberry and Mandarin orange, flavors of raspberry and blood orange, and an underlying flinty minerality.

Bargain BordeauxThe second wine of the noted Château Lassègue in Saint-Émilion, this red offers elegant restraint along with its ripe red fruit and baking spice notes.

The best deal of the summer. Simply sit poolside and sip this amazing bargain. Look for a future column on a wine loaded with interesting spice, earth, and black cherry on the nose. The tobacco and spice rack flavors play off the loamy earth notes. Black cherry and sweet raspberry swoop in on the finish.

The Upper Barn Chardonnay 2016 and ‘17 were highly touted by RP. They are selling around $100 and worth it for those who enjoy complex, buttery chardonnay from Sonoma’s North Coast Alexander Valley. If possible, buy the ‘16.

2017 Les Cadrans de Lassegue Saint-Emilion Gran Cru is a happy marriage of merlot and cabernet franc from Bordeaux. Les Cadrans will show you why people love Bordeaux.

7 Best Wine and Book Pairings: What to Drink While You ReadSwingI’d pair this book with two wines from California...The second is this seductive Pinot Noir from La Crema. Pinot is the heartbreak grape, but it finishes with great sensuality. So again perfect.

Tropical notes of pineapple and guava meet citrus notes of grapefruit and lemon. This sauvignon blanc also has a hint of honeysuckle and a lingering finish. Pretty.

Red, White and Brew: End of summer selectionsRed Wine: Nielson wines are born on sandy soils, Pacific Ocean breezes and Santa Barbara sunshine. Named after Uriel J. Nielson, who in 1964 planted the first commercial vineyard in Santa Barbara County in California. Today there are more than 100 wineries in the area. Nielson’s 2017 Pinot Noir comes from three main regions within Santa Barbara County. It starts with bright red fruits and tea notes on the nose. The palate is light to medium-bodied. It drinks fresh and finishes a bit earthy. One of my all-time favorites in the $20 range. Also rated 90 points by Robert Parker. Give it a try, you might have just found your new go-to pinot!

Next up was Maggy Hawk 2018 Unforgettable Pinot Noir created at the Maggy Hawk Estate Vineyard in the Anderson Valley (Mendocino County). The grapes used for this unique Pinot Noir are fermented in three ton fermenters with pump overs twice a day. The final result is a Pinot mixing the flavors of jammy blackberry, boysenberry and blueberry. The scent is clearly flowery—you will be whiffing violets, lilac and pennyroyal. Maggy Hawk 2018 Unforgettable Pinot Noir is aged for 15 months in 43 per cent new French oak barrels and production is limited to only 571 cases per year.

Stonestreet 2017 Estate Chardonnay from Stonestreet Estate Vineyards in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County was up next in our virtual tasting. This vineyard produces high altitude wine. Stonestreet 2017 Estate Chardonnay is a truly unique product as you can literally taste hints of toffee, cashew brittle and salt grilled peaches when you sip it! Let’s not forget that you can taste a bit of Bosc pear abe caramel in the mix!

Gran Moraine Brut Rose is from the Yamhill-Carlton AVA in Oregon’s Williamette Valley. It is light, fruity and a little oaky all at once. I think that this is the ultimate brunch wine and also great for an outdoor picnic on a grassy hill with a lovely picnic basket full of charcuterie and French bread. Although subtle, there are hints of tangerine, kumquat and nectarine in the mix. Gran Moraine is very vibrant, well balanced and is clean all the way to the finish.