At Freemark Abbey, A New Chapter Continues Its Storied History A blockbuster, the 2017 Merlot offered abundant fruit, firm tannic structure and a smooth finish and the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, an opulent Bordeaux blend, was full bodied with dark fruit and chocolate.

At Freemark Abbey, A New Chapter Continues Its Storied History The 1999 and 2015 wines from the Sycamore Vineyard, a cooler climate vineyard set along the Mayacamas Range, were intensely dark in color and presented rich black currant flavors.

At Freemark Abbey, A New Chapter Continues Its Storied History The 1999 and 2015 wines from the Sycamore Vineyard, a cooler climate vineyard set along the Mayacamas Range, were intensely dark in color and presented rich black currant flavors.

At Freemark Abbey, A New Chapter Continues Its Storied History The 1999, 2009 and 2015 Cabernets from the Bosché vineyards, known for its wines of “sophistication, depth and longevity,” exuded signature notes of florals and full-bodied fruit, especially dark cherries.

At Freemark Abbey, A New Chapter Continues Its Storied History The 1999, 2009 and 2015 Cabernets from the Bosché vineyards, known for its wines of “sophistication, depth and longevity,” exuded signature notes of florals and full-bodied fruit, especially dark cherries.

At Freemark Abbey, A New Chapter Continues Its Storied History The 1999, 2009 and 2015 Cabernets from the Bosché vineyards, known for its wines of “sophistication, depth and longevity,” exuded signature notes of florals and full-bodied fruit, especially dark cherries.

At Freemark Abbey, A New Chapter Continues Its Storied History Those magnificent Cabernets! Ted’s favorite, 1995 Sycamore Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, was a stunner with notes of spice, black pepper, dark currants, menthol, soft tannins and balance. While tasting, Ted remarked that “everything lined up” during the vintage to help produce this exceptional wine.

At Freemark Abbey, A New Chapter Continues Its Storied History During dinner, our group tasted Kristy’s 2018 Napa Valley Chardonnay, a wine that speaks to the rich history of the region and the luscious hint of what we may expect from her winemaking style. Vibrant and elegant with a touch of oak and notes of citrus and ripe tropical fruit, Kristy admitted that she “took it up a notch” with this delicious wine. Creativity meets classic.

At Freemark Abbey, A New Chapter Continues Its Storied History Upon arrival at Sepia and greetings all around, a chilled glass of 2019 Sauvignon Blanc. refreshing and flavorful with zesty acidity and ripe tropical fruit notes, was offered.

How to Have Wine Delivered to You While You’re Socially Isolating Available at Everything Wine stores, the 2016 Penner-Ash Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley, Oregon, is a fragrant medium-bodied red, which doles out a potpourri of cedar chips and dried flowers, raspberry and exotic spices. Harmonious and expressive, it also has pleasing savoury undertones.

Wine of the Day: La Crema 40th Anniversary Pinot Noir Last year Sonoma’s long-loved Pinot Noir producer, La Crema, celebrated its 40th anniversary of making cool climate wines with an old-world character. In celebration, the winery has created La Crema’s 40th Anniversary Pinot Noir ($100) blending premium fruit from their Russian River estates, including Ross, Saralee’s, and my favorite, Seascape. To bring the present and the past together, La Crema’s current winemaker, Jen Walsh, worked with the founding winemaker, Rob Berglund, to bring the historic style of the winery together with modern techniques. The resulting wine is complex, nicely structured, and elegant, with wild berry, cola, violets, and soft herbs, with a savory earthiness on the finish. This is your wild mushroom risotto or truffle pizza pairing, as the wine has texture and concentration, without being overly weighty or intensely powerful. It is a beautiful representation of the quality La Crema delivers in their single-vineyard Pinot Noir wines.

Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay - recommended

Sonoma Coast Wineries Need Your Love Now More Than Ever Elegant and well-crafted, and while it’s definitely bigger than some, it finds a powerful, spicy sense of balance with scorched earth, smoke, toast, flamed orange peels, purple plums, crushed blackberries, and roasted coffee beans.

Full of rich red fruit flavor. Good complexity, depth for a pinot in at this price.

Sonoma Coast Wineries Need Your Love Now More Than Ever Here are 29 excellent bottles of Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir to look for. Ripe and fruit-forward, with red and black cherries, blueberries, violets, hints of kirsch, rooibos, tamarind paste, and sweet spice including vanilla and star anise.

The Best Red Wine For A Romantic Rooftop Date 2015 Stonestreet is a hidden California gem that wine enthusiasts love. This wine is grown in one of the best Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard sites in Alexander Valley. This red wine has a score of 91 points from Jeb Dunnuck. This dark-colored Cabernet Sauvignon is full-bodied, smooth, and balanced on the palate with tasting notes of black currant and oak bouquet. Your rooftop date nights will never be the same when you grab this red wine. It's not only affordable, but it's also one of California's best.

All together, let us toast the dawn of Spring! B+

Winery to Watch: Oregon's WillaKenzie The three pinot noirs were equally stunning, including the relatively modestly priced 2017 WillaKenzie Pinot Noir, WillaKenzie Estate Vineyard/Jory Hills Estate Vineyard at $35. This is an elegant pinot that shows exceptional fruit purity, impressive structure and a pleasing finish with a touch of tannin on the back end. The other two pinots are part of WillaKenzie's terroir-specific program that isolates grapes from six specific sites on the estate. I tasted the 2017 WillaKenzie "Aliette" pinot noir ($65) and the 2017 WillaKenzie "Kiana" pinot noir ($65). The Aliette delivers a distinctive nose of cherry and spice and is light in color though big on flavor. The beautifully perfumed Kiana, grown in a warmer microclimate, trends to the floral spectrum of aroma, with an impressive mid-palate and exceptional palate length.

Winery to Watch: Oregon's WillaKenzie The three pinot noirs were equally stunning, including the relatively modestly priced 2017 WillaKenzie Pinot Noir, WillaKenzie Estate Vineyard/Jory Hills Estate Vineyard at $35. This is an elegant pinot that shows exceptional fruit purity, impressive structure and a pleasing finish with a touch of tannin on the back end. The other two pinots are part of WillaKenzie's terroir-specific program that isolates grapes from six specific sites on the estate. I tasted the 2017 WillaKenzie "Aliette" pinot noir ($65) and the 2017 WillaKenzie "Kiana" pinot noir ($65). The Aliette delivers a distinctive nose of cherry and spice and is light in color though big on flavor. The beautifully perfumed Kiana, grown in a warmer microclimate, trends to the floral spectrum of aroma, with an impressive mid-palate and exceptional palate length.

Winery to Watch: Oregon's WillaKenzie The three pinot noirs were equally stunning, including the relatively modestly priced 2017 WillaKenzie Pinot Noir, WillaKenzie Estate Vineyard/Jory Hills Estate Vineyard at $35. This is an elegant pinot that shows exceptional fruit purity, impressive structure and a pleasing finish with a touch of tannin on the back end. The other two pinots are part of WillaKenzie's terroir-specific program that isolates grapes from six specific sites on the estate. I tasted the 2017 WillaKenzie "Aliette" pinot noir ($65) and the 2017 WillaKenzie "Kiana" pinot noir ($65). The Aliette delivers a distinctive nose of cherry and spice and is light in color though big on flavor. The beautifully perfumed Kiana, grown in a warmer microclimate, trends to the floral spectrum of aroma, with an impressive mid-palate and exceptional palate length.

Winery to Watch: Oregon's WillaKenzie His philosophy came through loud and clear when I tasted the two chardonnays, the 2018 WillaKenzie Willamette Valley Chardonnay and the 2017 WillaKenzie Estate Chardonnay, Yamhill-Carlton. The 2018 Willamette chard shows a wonderful touch of lemon creme, richness lifted by firm acidity and subtle hints of baking spice. The 2017 Estate chardonnay, grown in a slightly warmer microclimate in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, is richer and more opulent, with complex layers of citrus, apple, pear and spice.

Winery to Watch: Oregon's WillaKenzie His philosophy came through loud and clear when I tasted the two chardonnays, the 2018 WillaKenzie Willamette Valley Chardonnay and the 2017 WillaKenzie Estate Chardonnay, Yamhill-Carlton. The 2018 Willamette chard shows a wonderful touch of lemon creme, richness lifted by firm acidity and subtle hints of baking spice. The 2017 Estate chardonnay, grown in a slightly warmer microclimate in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, is richer and more opulent, with complex layers of citrus, apple, pear and spice.

On the estate that brings back thoughts of wine, but also of true beauty (Arceno is among the most evocative places in the area of which Castelnuovo is the capital, and in the approximately 1,000 hectares of the property nothing is missing to reiterate it, among woods and cypress groves, park, lake, old houses and precious olive groves) works a mini UNO. US property, terroir more than ever Tuscan, Bordeaux-inspired finishing entrusted (in both with Lawrence Cronin) to Pierre Seillan, the well-established Gascon creator of the award-winning Verité in Sonoma and long in St. Emilion in various Chateau. The outcome? A battery that starts from the Sangiovese chiantigeni, faced with respect and willingness not to distort, and indeed claim the stigmata of the area, and then veer on the banners of Bordeaux worked in blend and in purity: Merlot Valadorna and - here we are - Cabernet Franc Arcanum, once "baptized" with variable doses of the confreres of Garonna, and today proudly in purity: grape variety as expressive as susceptible, capable of rustic and abrupt expressions as well as elegance and twirls by Nureyev. The Arcanum 2016 (classic vintage, among the few in a decade woven of climatic asperities rather than regularity) has the elasticity of the dancer and his balance, but also the skeleton and breath of the cross-country skier: serious and serene, varietal and territorial together, it is worth its cost, and it will demonstrate it along a journey that can be estimated in decades.

Red wines to warm you up these last few winter days Siduri Wines (named after the Babylonian goddess of wine) specialize in cool-climate, American west coast Pinot Noirs, sourcing fruit from vineyards from Oregon’s Willamette Valley, down to California’s Santa Barbara County. If these two wines I recently tasted are any indication, the company seems to have a good handle on what it’s doing. Both are extremely well-crafted, complex and seamlessly integrated. The SLH just barely got the nod from me over the RRV, but this is really splitting hairs. Both wines show classic Pinot Noir aromas, with shades of black raspberry, cedar, and mild spice aromas in the SLH, where the RRV leans more towards black cherry, tobacco leaf, and new leather. Where the SLH carries a tad more weight, the RRV is imbued with a silky, almost oily, viscous texture. You really can’t lose either way.

Red wines to warm you up these last few winter days Siduri Wines (named after the Babylonian goddess of wine) specialize in cool-climate, American west coast Pinot Noirs, sourcing fruit from vineyards from Oregon’s Willamette Valley, down to California’s Santa Barbara County. If these two wines I recently tasted are any indication, the company seems to have a good handle on what it’s doing. Both are extremely well-crafted, complex and seamlessly integrated. The SLH just barely got the nod from me over the RRV, but this is really splitting hairs. Both wines show classic Pinot Noir aromas, with shades of black raspberry, cedar, and mild spice aromas in the SLH, where the RRV leans more towards black cherry, tobacco leaf, and new leather. Where the SLH carries a tad more weight, the RRV is imbued with a silky, almost oily, viscous texture. You really can’t lose either way.