Excellent.

Exceptional.

Exceptional.

Another take on blending a variety of the Valley’s vineyards to create a greater picture of why this is a special place for Pinot Noir. Pinot grapes from twenty different vineyards and multiple growing regions. The wine is darker in fruit character, with aromas of mocha powder, cinnamon and black plum. The palate though offers fresh minerality, turned earth, moss, and lots of blackberry flavors.

A visit to Lokoya’s winery, perched snuggly upon the hills of Spring Mountain, is one of the key reasons we fell in love with Napa. Cabernet Sauvignon is their icon, and they produce award-winning style from all corners of the region – Spring Mountain, Diamond Mountain, Howell Mountain and Mount Veeder. Today, we focus on the latter. Dark cherry, blackcurrant, demerara sugar and black liquorice evolve into blackberry and stewed raspberry. The robust tannins within this beauty pave way to a long dark chocolate and tobacco finish, held together with a beautiful texture and mouthfeel.

The Jackson Family have been making wine for as long as we can remember and the beautiful thing about each and every one of their estates is that quality is never compromised for scale.This hefty Bordeaux blend (largely Cabernet Sauvignon with some Merlot) is produced in limited quantities and is well worth the money. Showcasing rich flavours of cassis, mint and raspberry with a moreish earthiness thanks to its incredible terroir, this wonder adds an extra layer of comfort to the cold winter air. This is another highlight and a testament to the stunning wine that calls Napa Valley its home.

In praise of half bottles - excellent.

In praise of half bottles - excellent.

In praise of half bottles - excellent.

Here is a magnificent wine from the Jackson family, the people behind America’s best-selling Chardonnay, Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve. Using grapes from the group’s Stonestreet Winery in the stunning Alexander Valley, an AVA within Sonoma County, it is a delicious example of a classic, richly-textured Chardonnay, with flavours from buttercream, toasted marshmallow, along with ripe peach and pear fruit. It also has a touch of fresh apple on the finish, and this appealing mix of characters linger for a long time after you’ve sipped it – a hallmark of any great wine.

My highest scorer in this year’s Global Chardonnay Masters hailed from South Africa. Capensis is a relatively new top-end white from the Western Cape, made by California’s Chardonnay experts, Jackson Family Wines. It’s outstanding, mixing creamy, toasty oak, and peach and apple fruit with the perfect Chardonnay texture: it’s soft and rich as it hits the tongue, zesty and bright as it slips down the throat, with a lovely lingering note of freshly roasted nuts. It’s not cheap, at close to £100, but when viewed relative to the price of grand cru white Burgundy, which Capensis would rival for quality, it’s doesn’t seem so expensive either.

Bright, ripe fruit flavors and zesty acidity in a full-bodied white.

Inky opaque garnet in the glass, this wine smells of lush cherry and cassis fruit and new oak. In the mouth, the wine is supremely juicy with cherry and cassis flavors made bouncy with excellent acidity, but the wood and its muscular tannins overshadow the fruit a bit, leaving the mouth drying out and more taste of sawdust than cherry. Polished but with too much oak for my taste. 14.5% alcohol.

The best wines to gift at every budgetThis wine calls for food in a way most California Chardonnay does not. Delicious styling and ready to drink.

Sourced from a small one-acre parcel with marine sedimentary soils, this chardonnay brings focus to the savory qualities of the region. The wine plays up the salinity yet brings forward a beautiful floral character.

Sparkling Wine — And The Best Bubbly For The 2020 HolidaysThis is quite a treat! Complex aromas of dark red berry fruit, fresh strawberries, slightly underripe raspberries, baked pear, with some toasted brioche. The palate is equally intriguing with some additional tangerine flavors. Lots of depth to this one. It’s equal parts fascinating and delicious!

The 14 Best Chardonnays to Drink in 2020There's more to this popular grape than the over-oaked style of yesteryear.Runner-Up Best Oaked: 2016 Stonestreet Upper Barn ChardonnayWinemaker Lisa Valtenbergs makes the most of Stonestreet’s mountain terroir on the Black Mountain range of the Mayacamas. Known for their distinctive cabernets and sauvignon blancs, Valtenbergs and her Stonestreet team also have a gift for chardonnay that matches the intensity of the flavor to the altitude of their mountains.In this wine, you'll find ripe apricots and candied pineapple with candied ginger, burnt honeycomb and Marcona almonds. The nose is bright and clean and the texture is rich, full-bodied and long.

The 12 Wines of Christmas (Part 2)With Christmas being one of the few times when few will judge you for being excessively indulgent, you definitely don’t want to scrimp and risk disappointment. For this reason, I suggest turning to Californian for its top Cabernets – wines that may be pricy, but provide reliable and instant appeal. While we have given out some very high scores for Sonoma’s great examples, (Stonestreet in particular, which I see for UK consumers available here) it’s Napa I’ve opted for in 2020. That’s because, if I look at the highest scoring wines from this year’s Cabernet Masters, coming out top in terms of points-for-the-price is the 2016 vintage of Napa Valley’s Freemark Abbey. Costing around £60 in the UK (if you can find this vintage), it’s expensive, but not by Napa standards, or compared to the great Cabs of the world, whether you turn to the Maipo, Tuscany or, of course, the Medoc. And this Freemark Abbey is a great wine, displaying the delicious hallmarks of fully-ripe Cabernet aged in new French oak, from creamy chocolate to concentrated blackcurrant, along with a touch of juicy raspberry, plums, and fine, dry, mouth-coating tannins. It’s a strong wine, but not too ripe, nor is it excessively alcoholic or sweet in character. In short, it’s a testament to the quality, richness and balance of well-made Napa Cab.

Wine Press - 12 Wines Worth Splurging On This Holiday Season2016 was an outstanding vintage for many wine regions in France. That was certainly true for the right bank in France’s Bordeaux region, where St. Emilion is located. Chateau Lassegue might not be as well known as some other famous Bordeaux wineries, but this elegant, refined wine with rich, earthy flavors more than holds its own in the crowded field of outstanding wines from this legendary wine growing region.