Dark fruit, fruits of the forest, still youthful but complexing factors, coffee bean, savoury and retaining a bright/fresh finish. Deliciously more-ish.

Aromas of red fruit, violets, savoury component. Red juicy, fresh tannin, light footed-finish.

Bigger fruit, hotter vintage wine, chewier, still powerful. Long.

Deeper blackcurrant, blueberry, green pepper, aromas - juicy tannins, fresh finish, leaves me wanting.

Young purple hue. Floral and red berry fruit perfume with some cacao and vanilla. Youthful juicy tannin, modern vibrant contemporary style.

An elegant and refined chardonnay, which is also surprisingly voluptuous! Classic Yarra characters of fresh melon and citrus flavours on the nose, underpinned with notes of marzipan & hazelnut. Located in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, Giant Steps is recognised as a global benchmark for cool climate Chardonnay. The winery is one of the most progressive in Australia and is known for its pursuit of site expression.

Wine Of The Week: 2018 Lassègue Saint-Emilion Grand Cru A special-occasion Bordeaux with a surprisingly affordable price point. Bordeaux needs little introduction, and neither does Saint-Émilion–a wee wine region within Bordeaux’s boundaries that produces otherworldly reds. One of the newest additions to the region’s Grand Cru Classé status is Lassègue, the flagship wine of Château Lassègue made predominantly with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. It’s young right now, but shows wild potential, with juicy notes of plum, blackberries, and chocolate, and undertones of earth. Powerful but vibrant and ripe. While other bottles from the region can command staggering price tags, Lassègue Saint-Emilion Grand Cru is still eminently affordable at just $60 per bottle. (Surprising, considering Ch. Lassègue’s neighbors include Château Pavie, Château Ausone, and Château Angelus.) I’d suggest you stock up — buy a few bottles, drink one now, one in five years, and one in ten. When the weather starts to chill, I want a red wine that envelops you like a hug. But this wine isn’t that. Before serving, it’s best to chill this red ever so slightly.

A very elegant Pinot with sweet ripe juicy strawberries and red cherries, and very fine tannins on the finish. A match for mushroom risotto, roast duck.

The wines tasted for this report, the La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2020 and Monterey Pinot Noir 2019 are considerable bargains for the high-quality experience they provide.
With its extended hang time, Monterey is a pinot noir paradise. Its proximity to Monterey Bay shrouds the vineyards in fog throughout much of the morning before being burned off by the sun.
The wine was bolder, richer, more brooding in nature, with plum, black cherry and blood orange flavors.
It's the afternoon winds though that give respite to the grapes, slowing their ripening as breezes sweep in off the frigid Bay.

The wines tasted for this report, the La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2020 and Monterey Pinot Noir 2019 are considerable bargains for the high-quality experience they provide. The Sonoma Coast and its layers of black cherry and black berry flavors were woven together by suggestive dusty dark chocolate and sweet tobacco. It's an appellation where pinot shines, because the mysterious flavors it has produced aren't always obvious. It's a moody kind of wine, where none of its characteristics are obvious. Vineyards in the Green Valley, Los Carneros, Petaluma Wind Gap and Russian River Valley are featured in the blend. They're what McAllister said are "true coastal vineyards."

One of the hottest and driest summers in the Willamette Valley produced quality Chardonnay grapes with maturity and balanced acidity. During ageing in French Oak barrels, weekly stirring of the lees created a wine with creamy mouthfeel and elegant complexity.

Chianti Classico is generally considered to produce the best Chianti wines. Riserva indicates higher-quality fruit and extended barrel and bottle aging. Gran Selezione is the highest classification, requiring 90% sangiovese, estate fruit and even longer aging.
2017 Tenuta di Arceno “Strada al Sasso” Gran Selezione rich, savory, vanilla.

21 Cheap Wines That Will Please Even Your Pickiest Guests
Cheers to saving $$$!
We've said it once and we'll say it again: There's absolutely nothing wrong with cheap wine. Not all celebrations call for shelling out big bucks for a bottle, especially if they're simply the "we made it through another day!" kinds of celebrations. So to help you enjoy yourself without spending a small fortune, we've rounded up 21 bottles of inexpensive wine. Pop the cork and enjoy!
#11 - Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay 2020
Kendall-Jackson has been America's #1 selling Chardonnay for 25 years. You'll taste tropical flavors with citrus notes in this wine.

Uncorking the Classics
Top sommeliers pick 20 brilliant bottles from historic wine regions.
McLaren Vale, Nadine Brown
This wine is one that made me stop and say, "Wait, what is this?" It's got that Roussanne richness but also brilliant acid and this very faint touch of funk.

Hello Merlot!
The 2019 La Jota Vineyard Co. was another dense and rich merlot grown in the volcanic soils of Howell Mountain. Both wines show promising cellar-worthy characteristics.

Hello Merlot!
From the mountain terrain of Mt. Veeder, the 2019 Mt. Brave was bold yet elegant, displaying a luxuriously flavorful finish.

Within Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley lies a rugged, high-elevation sub-AVA that was established over ten years ago but is still relatively unknown as the entire 4600-acre region has only 230 acres planted to vines (via Sonoma County). The Pine Mountain-Cloverdale Peak AVA lies at altitudes of 1660 – 3000 feet above sea level. Here, sitting at some of the highest elevations, Capture Winery grows rustic, bold, concentrated Cabernet Sauvignon for its Capture Pine Mountain-Cloverdale Peak Cabernet Sauvignon. With structured power and an elegant frame, the wine melds earthy graphite and dried tobacco characteristics with black and blue fruit, woody herb, and cedar. Pair this wine with any protein you are grilling tonight!

North of Sonoma County lies Anderson Valley. It is a region with a maritime climate heavily influenced by the Pacific, thanks to its close proximity to the ocean. It is home to some of the most exciting cool climate Pinot Noir wines produced in California today. From one end of the valley to the other, the cool-climate variety can take on red or black fruit notes, earthy forest floor, and herbal flavors, all while melding rustic tannin with lively acidity. Siduri brings fruit from three vineyard sites for its Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, showcasing blue and blackberry, cranberry, and pomegranate with an underlying note of herbs de Provence.

Meaty, spicy, and impressive, and quite self-aware of all three.

Much of California is too hot to grow finicky Pinot Noir.
However, Murphy-Goode sources the grapes for its 2019 Pinot Noir from coastal vineyards in Sonoma and Santa Barbara, which are kept cooler by Pacific breezes.
The resulting grapes maintain good acidity and fresh fruit flavours for a Pinot with a plush, cherry-and-vanilla profile.

The undisputed champion of California white wines is Chardonnay and the 2019 Murphy-Goode Chardonnay is a prime example with the right balance of fruit and oak for a drink that's rich and full-bodied and reminiscent of grilled pineapple and crisp apple.

The 2020 La Crema Pinot Noir Rose fits the bill with a fresh, light and glamourous profile of sweet ripe raspberry and tart orange peel.

One of several Yangarra Grenache iterations, this one unique in its ceramic, egg-shaped vessel winemaking as well as individual block sourcing. Fragrance parameters sit in a familiar frame – bush florals meet crushed berry, meets kitchen herbs, especially dried thyme. Keep swirling the glass and you’ll disappear into its vapours, as you will when you sip, all those aromatics echoing as flavour whirlpools in the mouth, coated with a pretty decent cloud of fine tannins that are pliable enough to still allow the wine’s inherent juiciness and spice-like seasoning to remain front and centre. There’s a lot to calculate here besides the pure expression of the variety at its most enjoyable. Let it sit in the glass. Let it dwell. It’s gorgeous.