A delicious, fruity, opulently-textured Chardonnay that provides immense pleasure and satisfaction for a fair price.

A sweet nose of candied cherries. Additional cola and tree bark flavors decorate the edges. A Pinot to buy for in your face fruit intensity and a full finish.

Big and ripe with lush fruit and oily, dense texture.

It has the aroma of orange peel and is packed with dry, rich butter and raspberry flavors that mellow and become plummy as it warms.

If you're wondering why wine writers increasingly are excited about the reliability and intensity of Pinot Noir produced in California, pull the cork from a bottle of 1992 Julia's Vineyard Pinot Noir. It's what the varietal is all about when it can be coaxed into flaunting its finest stuff--plum berries and cherries in smell and flavor, a rich satiny texture, a structure wiry yet resilient, a critic tanginess in the finish.

A heftier, spicier and more complex version of the varietal.

Forward pear-apple nose, the fruit character is surrounded by vanilla and brown spice oakiness. Very crisp palate, and a lean finish.

A provocative bouquet of bacon fat, toasty new oak, smoke and black fruits.

A mild, accessible and fundamentally friendly wine that seems to have been designed with early drinking in mind, this supple middleweight steers to cherries and vanilla in both its bright aromas and its direct flavors.

Lavish oak works to fill out deep aromas of cocoa and well-ripened fruit, and it takes an even larger role in providing richness to the flavors that follow.

Light tropical fruit aromas, and a generous, slightly sweet entry. The full spicy palate leads to a warm finish. The classic Kendall-Jackson blend.

Cambria Vineyard and Winery is quickly earning a reputation for rich, Santa-Barbara-style chardonnay. This buxom wine offers a solid array of melony fruit and oak scents, followed by a full, creamy mouth-feel and a long, vanilla-toned finish. Admirable for its great concentration, all the big elements are well-balanced in place.

Herbal and green apple aromas seem most forward here, but an underlying oaky sweetness gives the wine a great deal of promise. Clean, dry finish.

A meritage-type blend with intense cabernet character. The bouquet is balanced between tobacco, spicy scents and black fruit. On the palate, berries and black currants dominate in a mouthfilling body. Light in the finish.

Youthful but rich and viscous

Recommended.

In a short time, La Creama has become one of the most prestigious names in chardonnay. This lovely, tropical-styled wine is from a fascinating blend of fruit from Sonoma's Russian River area, Monterey, Mendocino and Santa Barbara. And with that growing season of 92', how could it not be good? It's without any doubt in my mind the best La Crema has made.

Recommended. One of the better efforts by this Sonoma winery. Tropical fruit aromas and toasty oak flavors, good complexity.

Bright, black cherry flavors with a brisk, American oak edge. A hint of nutmeg and no filtration give the wine extra dimension.

Very aromatic nose of cloves and strawberry-cherry fruit, enhanced by a hint of forest floor humus and a note of bacon rind; reminiscent of a premier cru Burgundy. Spicy and complex on the palate, with delicious flavors focusing on cherries and berries, plus spice. A true bargain.

Spicy and rich with lush texture and wonderful smoky, velvety qualitites.

Huge body, rich texture, hints of spice and vanilla. Most grapes come from the slopes of Mount St.Helena in Sonoma County.

Recommended.

From the barrel, it had spectacular extraction of flavor, and a huge, bacon fat, cassis-scented nose that reminded me of top-notch Hermitage. Its texture was softer than a classic Hermitage, but the tannins were ripe and the purity of fruit was admirable.