This may be dark, palate-filling and intense, but it's depth of fruit and character. Give it a few years to smooth its rough edges and allow more of the plum and wild cherry fruit to come forward, then enjoy a bottle with venison.

Older vines (twenty-plus years), grown at a relatively high altitude (1,500 ft.) give this weighty, full-flavored wine a robust pungency that Sancette producer Didier Dageneau would dig. Lemon rind, figs and wild herbs suffuse this bottling, which starts out big and grows more elegant as it opens up in the glass. Place it with something rich but not too heavy…

Generally speaking, when you see Alexander Valley on a bottle of cabernet, you think soft, fruity and easy to drink. Instead, this '95 has some real mountain fruit extract and flavor that demands aging. Ripe flavors of licorice and plum are framed by oak and very firm tannins. This Buckeye could use two to three years to soften into a lithe and supple wine, then pull out a bottle for a holiday dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

The flavor core is built around dry coffee, herb and currant.

…sweet cream, cinnamon, raspberries.

…sweet, soft red berries.

Balanced fruit and oak nose, ripe and forward with spice and tropical notes; buttery texture, oaky notes; length.

Very ripe fruit salad aroma, toasty oak back notes; ripe fruit flavors, crisp, citrusy acidity, pungent oak.

This superb blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot has flavors of coffee, chocolate and vanilla, and a long, creamy finish.

It is big, ripe, dense and acceptably varietal in its amalgam of ripe black cherries, roasted wood notes, suggestions of loam and hints of raspberry jam. In the mouth, it is lush and full-bodied, counterparts while being that much more in weight again than the wines from France. Along with weight and intensity comes a certain extra bit of heat in the latter palate and finish that marks this one as out of the ordinary and directs it towards service with savory meats.

Vanilla spice and richly flavored dark cherry fruit. Still youthful

Bright golden cast. Full-bodied. Balanced acidity. Moderately extracted. Heavily oaked. Smoke, yeast, cream. Quite heavily oaked, with a big, smoky flavor profile. Luxuriant and rich, with easty complexity and enough acidity to maintain a sense of balance through the finish.

Complex, intense and well integrated, with ripe, rich fruit, lots of currant, anise, earth, mineral and spice, picking up leather and meat notes on the finish. Has the tannic strength to age…

To put it in technical winemaking terms, this Mendocino County product is one big mutha - big fruit, big oak, powerful sweet spices in the nose and mouth and a very long, lingering finish.

…round and fruity, and it goes down easy.

This dry white wine offers rich flavors of figs, melons, peach, pear, wood smoke and herbs. With its rounded, oak-mellowed texture, this is a sauvignon blanc that is well-suited for serving with salmon or swordfish.

We like it and always do. It's got good tropical fruit, gobs of fruit and that slightly sweet taste.

Counting ripeness, rich oak and solid structure…

The wine reveals attractive fruit and softness on the attack…

…is a smoky, soft, simple yet pleasant offering with the grape's lively, briery character displayed in a straightforward manner.

…black raspberry/blackberry character, fuller body, and a less evolved personality. Intense, with beautifully ripe fruit, outstanding purity and equilibrium…

A superlative effort from K-J in what is shaping up to be a rather tough vintage for premium California Chardonnay. Sporting a floral and honeyed nose, this wine speaks volumes about the power of fruit over oak, and about multiple sources of quality fruit. While there are some sweet vanilla and wood nuances courtesy of nine months of aging in small barrels, the high point of the wine is its vibrant pear and apple flavors. Layered and rich, this wine is extremely clean. It also has the perfect level of acidity to handle foods with aromatic spices. I enjoyed it with lightly cured prawns and couscous with apples and raisins. It was just right for that aromatic and flavorful dish. While there may "only" be a California appellation on this wine, which in many cases denotes that the grapes were harvested from inferior vineyards, in this case it simply means that K-J has sourced excellent fruit from its top vineyards throughout the state.

…displays a thick-textured, dark purple color, and moderately intense cranberry/cherry liqueur- like aromatics nicely dosed with spicy new oak. Pepper and subtle herbs are also noticeable.

"Bright medium-gold in color, the '96 Grand reserve holds to its style of ripe fruit character and toasty oak structure. The grapes used are sourced from Santa Barbara, Monterey, Sonoma and Mendocino counties, giving it a melange of tropical, stone and citrus fruit flavors and aromas. Fermentation in French oak barrels adds notes of nutmeg, butter and toast, rounding out a very stylish wine. It's medium-bodied rather than dense or powerfully concentrated, and it will pair will with big foods such as lobster tempura, as there is enough acidity to cut the richness.