“Full fruit” is a trite expression in the wine business, oftentimes used as an excuse for wine that has no complexity. What a stunner it is to taste a wine that has so many points of flavor, including primary lemon, pear, and peach flavors, as well as earthier flavors of caramel and treacle, yet tastes like wine, not grape juice. The restrained oak and clean palate on this wine truly makes you pause and reflect, as you slowly break out into a smile.

An elegant blend of ripe peach and crisp, citrus fruit, with a refreshing, cool salinity, this is a sunshine Chardonnay that is anything but blousy. Subtle oak pops through on the palate in the form of cooking spices and a touch of smoke, creating a flavoursome wine in perfect balance.

The 13 Best New Merlots to Buy Right NowThis 10-year-old from the La Jota vineyard honoring Howell Mountain wine pioneer W.S. Keyes (he planted it in the late 1800s)—just re-released—is a delicious argument for aging great Merlot. Still fresh with bright fruit and acidity, it’s offering complex layers of flavor and aromas now. Loam and pencil shavings are showing under berry liqueur and dark chocolate. Ripe but elegantly firm tannins give structure to spicy black raspberry and cherry, with mountain intensity carrying through a lingering finish.

Checking off all the boxes for your chianti needs with tight cherry fruits, plum and wild strawberries to boot and a palate full of fine-grained tannins that accentuate the acids and bring the whole thing right into balance. It can cellar a bit if desired, but most importantly, it's a good bottle to have on hand if a marinara or Bolognese sauce is in the works for dinnertime...

A merlot based blend without a drop of sangiovese, this super Tuscan is more like a meritage style blend, but done oh-so-well and still wonderfully Italian. Plum, cedar, cocoa, and cherries dominate the palate, but it's the perfect acids that make this really hum. Would be dynamite with beefy dishes or those with rich tomato sauces. Stunning.

4 fantastic wines for women’s dayThis Pinot has lots of dried sage and tarragon over bright black cherry.

One to satisfy any ardent California chardonnay fan. Butter on the nose and butter on the palate, with rich and bright pineapple and lemon curd. The best part is the fresh acidity to provide balance to the oak and the ripe fruit.

Women are making it in the bigger corporates as well. In California, the substantial Jackson Family Wines business is run by Barbara R Banke, who co-founded the company with her late husband and has run it alone since his death in 2011; she has employed women winemakers in three of their divisions, including Jill Russell, who leads an all-female winemaking team at the Cambria estate in Santa Barbara, and whose inaugural vintage of Cambria’s Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay 2017 has already been justly celebrated: a lovely wine that strikes a perfect balance between weight, oak, citrus, refreshing stone-fruit flavours and hints of spice.

Using sustainably farmed estate grapes, Russell creates lively and fresh wines. The single-vineyard 2018 Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay ($27) hits the sweet spot for California chardonnay. I love the moderate oak influence on this. It has a creamy mouthfeel, with flavours of apricot, peach, flint and popcorn. This would be fantastic with crab or lobster.

Siduri specialises in cool-climate Pinot Noir from vineyards in three appellations within the Willamette Valley (Yamhill-Carlton, Chehalem Mountains, and Eola-Amity). Each brings something different to the party — fresh acidity, bright aromatics, and richer and rounder wines — and when blended together creates wine that is rich and zippy …the best of all possible worlds! Winemaker Adam Lee's constant pursuit of Pinot perfection has led to long-standing relationships with top growers in premier appellations in Oregon's Willamette Valley. On the nose aromas of Cranberry, persimmon, bay leaf and black pepper. On the palate: Black cherry, boysenberry, cinnamon and hints of clove. Pleasant tannins hold a long finish, and which are highlighted by juicy acidity and spice. This 2018 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir may be its finest vintage yet! Siduri, where serious wine and serious fun are not mutually exclusive!

Colour: bright, light gold.Nose: aromas of pineapple chunks, peach, citrus and vanilla with hints of musky, woody spice.Palate: juicy notes of white peach, pineapple and baked apple with vanilla custard, soft spice, slightly smoky, toasty oak and a touch of grilled grapefruit on the lingering finish.Food match: versatile with a variety of food, including chicken stroganoff, grilled chicken, scallops, vegetarian risottos and pasta dishes.

On the nose, there was buttery shortbread, lemon zest, white blossom, vanilla, crisp apple and a faint trace of nutmeg. On the palate, I found peaches, pears, lemon, Newtown Pippins apples (reminiscent of my childhood as our garden had 49 apple trees, mainly that variety), wonderful butteriness from malolactic fermentation, melon, pear, sweet almonds, vanilla and a distinctive minerality. This wine was perfectly balanced between fruit and acidity. It was also long on the palate.

Pineapple and peach aromas; apple, butterscotch, spice and minerals on the creamy palate. Good balance of oak and acidity. Good plus overall.

Yes, You Should Drink White Wine in the WinterHere's what the experts recommend.La Crema recommended.

Yes, You Should Drink White Wine in the WinterHere’s what the experts recommend.Similar to Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc is a grape that’s a clone or mutation of Pinot Noir and is also found in the Alsace region of France. It also happens to be grown in California. Kendall-Jackson winemaster Randy Ullom points to Pinot Blanc as a perfect choice for a cold winter evening. “It should not be enjoyed very cold and should be served just below normal room temperature. Between 58 and 62 degrees Fahrenheit is just fine,” he notes. “Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay tend to be richer and heartwarming, making them both perfect choices for a cold winter evening.”

The 20 Best Cheap Wines Under $20 for 2021It’s nice to have a solid Sonoma wine as a grab and go. And this wine defines that. It’s widely available and is a crowd pleaser. It has good American Chardonnay depth with moderate acidity, resulting in a smooth, creamy mouthfeel. It smells like butter and pears and won’t weigh you down with too much alcohol.

La Crema winemaker, Jen Walsh, came to visit Miami over Sobe Food & Wine Festival week in February, and we had a fantastic night out on South Beach innocently dining at Juvia. I’m not at liberty to tell you about the end of that evening, but it involved Mojitos and not Chardonnay. However, prior to the Mojitos and salsa dancing, there were a few bottles of La Crema Chardonnay. Full disclosure–I am typically an ABC type of gal, but I was most impressed by Jen’s wines, especially the Saralee’s Vineyard Chardonnay. Just a perfect bottle of Chardonnay, if you ask me, and you totally didn’t, but I’m telling you anyway.

Le Désir is the Cab Franc dominant bottle in the trio of Vérité wines (La Muse, La Joie). As a Cab Franc lova, I was immediately drawn to this particular blend (82% CF, 12% Merlot, 6% Malbec). I’m too tired to write out my tasting notes, but you should just know it’s a damn good bottle. If you made any money this year, you should spend it on buying a few bottles of Vérité, or paying your rent, which is probably about the same.

The 2016 Les Cadrans de Lassegue is a blend of 90% Merlot with the remainder of Cabernet Franc. It shows deep color in the glass, nearly opaque. Aromas of dark cherry, espresso, hint of spice and violets leap out of the glass. On the palate the flavor is exuberant showing rich chocolate, velvety, textured and is polished. The tannins are finely integrated and finishes with fresh acidity. The Merlot and Cabernet Franc harmonizebeautifully in this wonderfully crafted second label from Chateau Lassegue from St Emilion.

October is “Merlot Month” and November 7th is #InternationalMerlotDay” so in celebration, today’s wine of the week is the 2016 Les Cadrans de Lassègue, from Saint-Émilion, France.The 2016 Les Cadrans de Lassègue comes from Saint-Émilion and is a blend of 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. This wine is the second label of Chateau Lassègue and is made by father and son Pierre and Nicolas Seillan. A well-made Merlot is sexy and seductive with red fruit aromas and silky tannins.The 2016 Les Cadrans de Lassègue has notes of cranberry, cherry and violets with a hint of spice and vanilla. On the palate, the wine is round with silky tannins and fresh acidity.It is time to celebrate Merlot, not just because it is Merlot Month but because it is a delicious wine and at $27, the 2016 Les Cadrans de Lassègue is very affordable.

Mostly merlot and cabernet franc with a dash of cabernet sauvignon thrown in creates a big styled St. Emilion that can stand up to any cuisine. Cassis, plums, and dried cherry elements dominate with a subtle refined oak under-note. A bit of earthiness at the end and a long rich full finish.

Deep ruby color; cherry, black plum on the nose; cherry, raspberry, plum on the palate.Dry; dusty tannins. I’ve reviewed younger iterations of this wine where decanting was suggested. This is more mature bottle (nine years), and it did not require decanting. The vintage also may have played a part. I am happy I forgot this bottle in the back of my wine fridge. It makes a point on how bottle age affects a wine.Bold, voluptuous merlot flavors. Classic Bordeaux grapes with cabernet franc rivaling merlot in the emphatic presentation of fruit. A small amount of cabernet sauvignon rounds out the mix; 13.5% ABV.

Chateau Lassègue 2016, St.-Emilion Grand Cru, alters the balance with 60 percent merlot, 33 percent cabernet franc and 7 percent cabernet sauvignon. The color is an intense black-purple with a faint ruby edge; immediately come hints of cedar and tobacco, rosemary (with a touch of that herb’s woody resinous quality) and dusty dried porcini mushrooms, with concentrated notes of black and red currants and whiffs of blueberry and cranberry; yes, this is a highly structural wine — it received 70 percent new oak — yet it’s surprisingly fleet and buoyant on the palate, an amalgam of woodsy flowers and spices, heather and forest floor, bright acidity and layers of stalwart tannins and slightly leathery oak; the finish is very dry, dignified, Olympian. 14.5 percent alcohol. Try from 2022 or ’23 through 2032 to ’36.

The blend for the Chateau Lassègue 2012, St.-Emilion Grand Cru, is 70 percent merlot, 25 percent cabernet franc and 5 percent cabernet sauvignon, aged 12 months in French oak barrels. The color is opaque black-purple; the whole package is quite ripe and spicy — that is, slightly exotic cooking spices — but resolutely structured; notes of macerated black currants and cherries are permeated, in scent and flavor, by touches of cedar and tobacco, sage and dried thyme; give this an hour and waves of iron and iodine, graphite and mint emerge, wrapped about elements of lavender, bitter chocolate and walnut shell; dusty, velvety tannins gain power from mid-palate back through a finish framed by granitic minerality. 13.5 percent alcohol. Fine to drink now, with some airing and a platter of braised lamb shanks or a medium rare rib-eye steak, and with proper storage should develop beautifully through 2028 through ’32.

Les Cadrans de Lassègue 2016, with black cherry, cranberry, spice and violet on the nose, a rich and round palate and fresh acidity on the finish.