Seeing 20/20 – Sonoma & Anderson Valley New ReleasesThe 2018 Chardonnay Stature is fabulous. Rich, creamy and super-elegant, the 2018 is one of the best wines I have tasted from Kendall-Jackson. The wine's balance is just unreal. The 2018 is ample, deep and layered, but also light on its feet.

Seeing 20/20 – Sonoma & Anderson Valley New ReleasesThe 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Réserve Spéciale is a dark, brooding wine. Gravel, smoke, black cherry, lavender, licorice, spice and menthol infuse the 2016 with notable darkness and power. This dense, muscular wine needs a bit of time for the tannins to soften, but it is impeccably done.

This is full of vibrant cassis, blackberry and plum fruit notes, all driven by intense, briar, anise and apple wood accents. Features notable grip, with the vibrant acidity to match, and is built for the long haul. A serious mountain Cabernet. Best from 2024 through 2040.

A 60/22/18% blend, destemmed, mechanically sorted, wild yeast-open fermented, plunged, on lees, matured in used oak for 10 months. What a lovely wine from a lovely vintage. It's not an ounce over medium-bodied, but it articulates the place, varieties and the year with utmost clarity. Fine tannins are stitched through the scarlet taffeta of the perfectly pitched palate.

Fine-grained red fruit and berry flavors are refined and etched with rich spice and sandalwood accents. The juicy finish lingers with vibrant minerality and hot stone notes. Complex and elegant, exhibiting a vibrant balance. Drink now through 2025.

Santa Barbara: Present & Future The 2017 Pinot Noir Rita's Crown Vineyard is one of the most distinctive wines in this range. Powerful and vertical in feel, with a real sense of energy, the Rita's Crown is fabulous. Firm tannins give the 2017 much of its shape and overall drive, but there is more than enough fruit to keep things impeccably balanced. The interplay of aromatic intensity, transparency and structure is compelling. The 33% whole clusters add complexity without overpowering the wine.

Santa Barbara: Present & Future The 2017 Pinot Noir Radian Vineyard captures all of the natural density and pure power that is such a signature of this site. A rush of dark red cherry, plum, spice, new leather, sage and menthol builds as this potent, explosive Pinot shows off its personality. This is a fabulous showing.

Santa Barbara: Present & Future The 2017 Chardonnay Hapgood is ample and broad in the glass, with a real sense of phenolic intensity that gives the wine its overall shape. Tangerine, sage, mint, chamomile and dried flowers add aromatic nuance, but it is the wine's vertical feel that stands out most. The 2017 Hapgood is a superb Chardonnay endowed with tremendous character and sheer class.

Santa Barbara: Present & Future Another highlight in this range, the 2017 Chardonnay Machado is striking for its sense of translucence and nuance. Lemon confit, almond, dried pear and mint add shades of complexity to this super-expressive, layered Chardonnay. In 2017, the Machado is all about understatement and class. I loved it.

Wine Each Week – 2015 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon/Rutherford There are two kinds of Napa Cabernet. Those that reflect the iconic traditional style of Napa Cab and have been for decades…and everything else. In the last number of years many stalwart Napa producers have gone for over ripe fruit, extracted wines and a homogenized style that offers nothing unique. On the plus side, wineries like Freemark Abbey have retained the iconic Napa style. What sets their 2015 Rutherford Cabernet apart is the sheer seamless-ness of the wine, deftly pulling together oak, fruit, wood, tannin and acidity to create an absolutely indulgent wine. With grapes from three separate Rutherford vineyards the result is classic blueberry, black berry, boysenberry, hints of black cherry, plum, lingonberry and those “dusty” tannins Rutherford is famous for, not to mention subtle signs of mocha and sweet tobacco. Nearly 27 months in barrel (just under 60% was new French oak) has helped create a gorgeous wine, the kind of drinking experience you never rush through, but savor because you don’t want the bottle to end too quickly.

USA, California, Central Coast: The 2017 Vintage in Santa Barbara County Chardonnay vines in the Nielson vineyard were originally planted in 1964; this wine comes from those cuttings used to replant. Youthfully shy on the nose, the 2016 Chardonnay Nielson Vineyard opens very minerally with aromas of saline, crushed shell, gunflint and toast with ripe Golden Delicious apple, baked quince, warm Meyer lemon, pie crust and peach. The palate is medium to full-bodied, rounded and silky, oozing layer after layer of ripe, savory, spicy fruits, framed with tangy acidity and finishing very long and very flavorful.

Tasting the Traumatic 2017 Vintage (And Others) in Northern California This is a tight, Chablis-like white with sliced-peach and honeysuckle character. Medium-to full-bodied, tangy and vivid. Precise. Wonderful energy. No malo. Drink or hold.

USA, California, Central Coast: The 2017 Vintage in Santa Barbara County The 2017 Chardonnay 3D has a wonderfully open nose of honey-drizzled hazelnut, sweet hay, warm peach and nectarine with white blossoms, a hint of chamomile, red apple skin and a strong line of crushed rock minerality. It's medium to full-bodied and juicy with tons of ripe, honeyed fruits that segue back to lime skin and crushed stone on the very long, energetic finish.

Tasting a Twelve-Year Vertical of the Napa Valley-Based Blend The Cardinale Rule Chalk and gravel, rose petal, ivy, dried leaves, and blueberries. This is a construction zone, but it’s all the nicest wood, with mineral-packed barrels. Reminds me of Conterno Monfortino with age.

Tasting a Twelve-Year Vertical of the Napa Valley-Based Blend The Cardinale Rule So Howell-driven. Sanguine. Red sous bois, just-ripe mountain berries, leather, meat, olive, blackberry, warm spices, fir, and pine. Cool, candy-coated, and so textured.

Tasting a Twelve-Year Vertical of the Napa Valley-Based Blend The Cardinale Rule Blackberry, dark boysenberry, black tea, and candied black olive. Vast width on the palate. Structurally intense with a touch of Brett.

The brand's telltale aromas of pure red fruit and earth recall a wild strawberry plucked from a field of minty sagebrush. Rounded red-currant, pine-needle and redwood-frond flavors power the fresh palate, which is delightful and delicious.

James Halliday On The 2020 Cabernet And Family Varietal Winners 50% destemmed, 50% retained as whole berry, the remainder crushed. While there is plenty of clove, cardamon and aniseed to Asian five-spice intrigue hidden behind the velour of plush cherry fruit, this is relatively forward in the context of the stable's wines. A lick of vanilla pod oak and a skein of peppery acidity wafts across the long tail.

The 2009 Napa Valley Cabernets at Age 10 Full medium ruby. Complex but brooding aromas of black cherry, blackberry, dark plum, licorice, bitter chocolate and minerals. At once sweet and tightly wound, with its black fruit and licorice flavors conveying terrific density and focus. This has the grain and balance of a top young Pomerol. Spreads out nicely on the very long, still-youthful finish, which features noble tannins and superb persistence. This remarkably structured Merlot possesses the stuffing and balance for a long and graceful evolution in bottle. In fact, I suspect it will continue to gain in breadth with more cellaring.

Impressively deep red/purple colour, with a meaty, smoky charcuterie-like overtone to the blueberry and violet aromas. It's elegant, medium to full-bodied, intense and finely-structured, with plenty of tannin and remarkable structure, perhaps partly thanks to the 7% petit verdot that has been blended in. The wine is intense but not big or weighty. A surprising wine.

Deep red colour with a good tint of purple. The bouquet shows both cabernet and shiraz with the former opening the batting. Masses of blackberry, cassis and violet aromas fill the bouquet, while the meatiness and spice of the shiraz are more apparent in the mouth at this stage. It's full-bodied but also elegant, with abundant tannin firming the middle and finish, the follow-through long and satisfying. (60/40 cabernet/shiraz, the highest cabernet content to date).

Wine of the Week AU This has to be one of the best value wines in Australia. Glorious, fragrant, dark fruit with an intricate, yet silky, tannin frame. The flavours are incredibly pure, poised and vibrant. It is a serious wine, yet incredibly drinkable in its youth. Outstanding value. Drink now or age for further complexity.

Greg Brewer's hallmark on these wines are a purity of fruit, which, in this case, arises as strawberry sorbet on the nose, with hints of thyme and tarragon. That red-fruit focus spreads into the palate, where hints of cherry tomatoes and pepper dust lead into complex herbs and spearmint toward the finish.

Buoyant aromas of Bing cherry and raspberry sorbet are layered with lavender and rose buds on the elegant, approachable nose of this single-vineyard bottling. The palate is crisp in an underripe cherry flavor, with a taut texture and accents of mace and star anise on the finish.

Oregon 2019: 451 Tasting Notes and Scores A very poised pinot with fresh, wild cherries and abundant fresh, forest leaves, wood and herbs, all deeply woven together. The palate delivers a succulent, juicy impression with an elegant, long and unwavering shape. Excellent pinot. Drink or hold.