A Napa Cabernet Taste-Off in Lockdown: Do Good While Holed UpThe Cardinale was delicious from the first moment we saw it, smelled it and tasted it. It was opulent, with cedar, tobacco and rich, spicy black fruits. It’s a powerful, majestic, sensuous wine with all sorts of layers of complexity. “We feel like we’re drinking an adult beverage that is a product of the soil,” we wrote, as though it commanded us to sit up straight and to contemplate big-picture things. John thought it might have some Merlot because of its smoothness, and indeed it’s 11 percent.

Our Favorite Spring SparklersAromas of asian pear, honeysuckle, dragon fruit, rose petal, brioche, wild strawberry. Flavors of tangerine, kumquat, nectarine. Great balance and acidity, vibrant and exceptionally clean all the way through the finish, phenomenally precise.

The Best Rosé Wines to Drink This YearThis new vintage from Cenyth and winemaker Hélène Seillan is made from 100 percent Cabernet Franc, one of two wines that she makes at the winery. There are fragrant notes of fruits like crisp pear and apple, complemented by floral whiffs of honeysuckle and lavender. Overall, this is a highly enjoyable rosé.

25 of the Best Pinot Noirs for 2020For a Pinot Noir with as much alcohol as a Napa Cab this wine is pretty damn balanced. There is no heat coming off the surface of the wine in the glass and it smells like a campfire from a few miles away along with ripe cherries. The palate is viscous and I want to chew it. That subtle campfire vibe hits on the palate as well, making for a very enjoyable wine that might sneak up on ya with that ABV.

25 of the Best Pinot Noirs for 2020Great Pinot Noir from this region tends to be a bit pricey, so it’s nice to have a wine like this with a somewhat softer price tag, and a ton of balance and complexity. It’s like smelling cherry cola made from real cherries in a hipster Brooklyn incubator food complex sitting next to freshly turned soil. Speaking of hipsters, there’s a skosh of roasted coffee beans as well. The palate is bright but really lays into your palate with a nice, long finish. I just want to crack this wine open (screw cap) at sunset and share with good friends.

26 Stellar New Rosés to Welcome the Warmer MonthsAny one of these bottles will also sweeten your Mother's Day celebration.This rosé from longtime Oregon producer WillaKenzie measures in with 95 percent Pinot Noir, 4 percent Pinot Blanc, and 1 percent Pinot Meunier. It’s a lively sip, aromatic with honeysuckle, strawberry, stone fruit, and nice minerality. Bright, dry citrus carries the palate under white peach and cherry, with interesting textures through the finish.

26 Stellar New Rosés to Welcome the Warmer MonthsAny one of these bottles will also sweeten your Mother's Day celebration.Showcasing a Bordeaux variety that rarely speaks for itself on the rosé front, this Cenyth covers unusual ground. Wet stone aromas underlie gardenias and pears, opening to exotic citrus—lemongrass and lime—and bright red fruit flavors (especially raspberry).

26 Stellar New Rosés to Welcome the Warmer MonthsAny one of these bottles will also sweeten your Mother's Day celebration.Lovely veins of minerals and earth course through this one from Copain. Cherry and stone fruit blossom aromas lead into briary berry flavors layered with nectarine and hints of tropicals—delicate but vibrant at the same time.

26 Stellar New Rosés to Welcome the Warmer MonthsAny one of these bottles will also sweeten your Mother's Day celebration.Fresh and almost a little briny (that’s a good thing), this rosé from Hartford Family Wines opens with red berries and hints of roses. A downright pretty palate mixes stone fruit and red cherry with bright citrus.

26 Stellar New Rosés to Welcome the Warmer MonthsAny one of these bottles will also sweeten your Mother's Day celebration.Escaping the Burgundy and Rhône rosé families, this barely blushing Sangio version from Captûre opens with aromas conjuring the first of the season’s rain in a dusty orchard—wild cherry and just a hint of bubble gum joining in (that last is a good thing). Beautifully dry, tart, and savory, the palate follows up with more cherry and white peach balanced with grapefruit. It’s long and intense, with lovely, energetic tension.

10 California Pinot Noirs to Drink Right NowPinot noirs from California have adopted a more refined and elegant style over the past several years. These are the ones to seek out now.Part of the Jackson Family portfolio of wines, this small-production stunner delivers marvelous richness with cola spices, dark red cherry fruit, clove and burnt orange peel aroma, and sour cherry on the palate with cinnamon, brown spices, burnt caramel and flinty minerality. There’s a forest-like earthiness that underscores the silken fruit texture and spices, bolstered by juicy acidity and fine cedar tannins.

Tony Rynders, now free of his lawsuit with a former employer, is back making a white pinot noir under a different label. Not surprisingly, it’s a stunner. Unusual but not unique, a white pinot noir simply quickly removes the juice from the skin to strip the pinot noir of its more common red color. The texture is the same, but this wine has loads of aromas, balance and bright fruit character.

21 Unusual White Wines That Will Pair Perfectly With This Unusual SpringThere are wines beyond your typical Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc…“Old Vine” in this case involves almost 50 years. Planted in 1971, the Hyland Vineyard produced an intense and complex Riesling in this Penner-Ash. A pleasant whiff of petrol (a mark of the variety) joins jasmine and stone fruit on the nose, followed by vibrant apricot and lemon flavors seasoned with a little orange zest through a long, beautiful finish.

21 Unusual White Wines That Will Pair Perfectly With This Unusual SpringThere are wines beyond your typical Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc…As with the Emeritus White Pinot Noir, this wine from Maggy Hawk has no reference points. Bright but structured, it falls halfway between a white and a red in terms of weight (although pressed off the skins quickly, it appears white). Hints of red fruits are outweighed by crisp pear and honeyed stone fruit.

This Mother’s Day, give mom armchair culture and a glass of wine“Company,” about a noncommittal bachelor, calls for an easy-drinking merlot. The show is set in the 1970s when merlot is still considered cool, long before the 2004 movie “Sideways” gave it a bad rap.Movie and wine recommendation.

This Mother’s Day, give mom armchair culture and a glass of wine“Cats” is at its best with a smooth and sleek pinot noir.Movie and wine recommendation.

This Mother’s Day, give mom armchair culture and a glass of wine“Cats” is at its best with a smooth and sleek pinot noir.Movie and wine recommendation.

Pass the Pinot A signature pinot noir on the market, La Crema’s offering is celebrated nationwide for its flavors of berry fruit and plums, with subtle hints of exotic spice and toast and a balanced finish.

The Ultimate Mother's Day Food and Drink Gift Guide for Every Type of MomStart Mother's Day brunch off right—with a bottle of bubbly. La Crema Sparkling Brut Rosé has aromas of white flowers and crushed oyster shell and tastes like lemon meringue, wild strawberries and fresh ginger on the palate.

Review: light and juicy wines to buy for springExtremely easy to drink, this. Texturally quite light, it has a little oak on the nose and a creamy, buttery texture, finishing with a succulent red-fruit finish. Enjoy a glass before supper and take it with you into the meal.

Lustrous ruby. A little sour and reductive on the nose. Ripe supple palate, if not hugely expressive. A little simple for the category.

25 of the Best Red Blends for 2020The label looks like a Lichtenstein on weed after a Quentin Tarrantino film and the liquid doesn’t smell or taste like the grapes that made the wine. It has a whopping high alcohol content, and whatever subtleties the wine had have been eaten by the heat. But it has a sweet fruit core and good acidity, so, with its cool bro label, it’s a fun gift wine or a bottle to drink with goopy BBQ. But hydrate, cuz yes, that says 15.1 percent alcohol.

25 of the Best Red Blends for 2020There are nine, NINE grape varieties in this wine. NINE! And somehow it works. Tons of this wine is made, and there are no real discerning characteristics, other than some dark-fruit notes, silky tannins, and a palate you want to chew on. Which is great! Because this is a big ol’ sloppy, juicy burger bottle. This bottle wants to get messy with you and wash it all down. And it’s under $15. Buy a case, fire up the grill, and get on that group text chain. It’s time for a cookout.

The Bootleg Prequel is a blend of syrah, petite sirah, grenache, mourvedre, viognier and zinfandel with similar ripe flavors but with more oak-driven nuances such as vanilla and spice.

An almost even division of merlot, petite sirah and syrah, this ripe and generous blend shows off round dark berry flavors.