Coming from the Santa Maria Valley (this label is by and large focused on the Sta. Rita Hills), the 2017 Chardonnay Katherine’s just jumps from the glass with a perfumed, tropical bouquet of ripe citrus, spice, dried pineapple, and mango notes. Showing more and more classic salinity and oyster shell characteristics with time in the glass, it’s medium-bodied, has bright acidity, a layered, viscous texture, and a beautiful finish. It’s going to evolve for 8-10 years at a minimum.

The 2016 Chardonnay Spear is gorgeous. Lemon peel, white pepper and floral notes make a strong opening statement in this beautifully precise, tense Chardonnay. Bright saline notes shape the delineated mid-palate and finish. This is a fabulous example of the Diatom style at its best.

The 2015 Chardonnay Santos Road has a nose of salted almonds, lemon curd and lime leaves with hints of crushed rocks and wet slate. Medium-bodied, the palate has a very savory and minerally personality with an understated richness and great length. 143 cases were made.

Starting with the 2016 Chardonnay Hilliard Bruce, it’s a classic Chardonnay from this appellation that offers lots of citrus rind, salty minerality, spice and orange blossom aromas and flavors. Ripe impressively textured, with impressive clarity and cut, it will be at its best from 2018-2028. The Diatom releases are made by Greg Brewer. I loved all these 2016s and they had vibrant purity and freshness, with plenty of textural richness on the palate. The Sta. Rita Hills appellation needs more Chardonnays like this.

The 2017s From Sonoma Strawberries, spice box, blueberries, red currants, violets, and forest floor notes all emerge from the 2017 Pinot Noir Maggy Hawk, which has a certain old-school, Volnay-like vibe. It's a classic, balanced, complex Pinot Noir from this team that has that juicy, upfront, pretty fruit and nicely integrated acidity. This is another brilliant, elegant, complete wine from Copain.

The 2017s From Sonoma The first vintage for this cuvée from Ryan, the 2017 Pinot Noir Edmeades Vineyard comes from mid-valley and was brought up in 27% new French oak. It's a beautiful wine with blueberry and wild strawberry fruits as well as complex spice, dried flowers, and some loamy soil notes. Medium-bodied, seamless, and silky on the palate, it's a lovely, layered wine that shines for its texture and balanced.

The 2016 Pinot Noir Kiser En Haut from Anderson Valley saw 20% new French oak. It has a complex, nuanced, Côte de Beaune-like perfume of red fruits, sassafras, flowers, and exotic spices. Incredibly elegant, silky, and polished on the palate, with juicy acidity, it shines for its complexity, nuance, and ethereal texture. It’s one of the gems in the lineup.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages Pale to medium ruby-purple colored, the 2016 Pinot Noir Kiser en Bas is a little closed to begin, giving glimpses of red currants, pomegranate and black raspberry scents with touches of forest floor and fungi. Medium-bodied, firm, fresh and elegant in the mouth, it has a plush texture and wonderful freshness framing the intense red berry flavors, finishing long and earthy.

A wine of precision and nuance, the 2014 Pinot Noir Kiser En Haut bristles with energy. Bright red cherry, pomegranate, plum, spice and blood orange abound. The translucent, vibrant style is hugely appealing. Tasted next to the 2013, the 2014 has a bit more precision.

A dark, powerful wine, the 2015 Syrah Hawks Butte presents an exotic mélange of inky fruit, bittersweet chocolate, iron, blood, gravel, black pepper, juniper berry and blackberry jam. Rich, unctuous and potent, the 2015 is long on depth and fruit texture. The potent tannins need time to soften, but this is nicely done. Readers should expect a virile, brooding style.

The 2015 Syrah Brosseau is a brilliant, focused wine. Beams of chalky minerality lend brightness and persistence to the racy, dark red berry fruit. Smoke, dried herb, anise and dried flowers give this potent, focused Syrah a good bit of savoriness to play off the pungent fruit and bracing mineral notes. Above all else, the wine's drive and sublime, long finish are things of beauty. The Brosseau Syrah is one of the most distinctive wines in the Copain lineup.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Syrah Brosseau Vineyard (100% Syrah) comes charging out of the gate with vibrant black plums, black berries and wild blueberries scents plus touches of spice box, underbrush, violets and tapenade. The palate is medium to full-bodied with a taut, grainy texture and fantastic freshness lifting the peppery black fruit to a long finish.

The 2014 Syrah High Rock Ranch, from a site in the Yorkville Highlands, is another fabulous wine from Copain. Bright, focused and finely sculpted, the High Rock Ranch captures all the best elements of the Copain style. Floral, mineral and savory notes abound. The High Rock Ranch is fabulous.

The 2013 Syrah Hawks Butte is one of the most nuanced wines in this lineup of 2013s. Bright and floral, with a good deal of aromatic intensity from the whole clusters, the 2013 offers striking nuance and more energy than most of the other 2013s. Lavender, violet, menthol, licorice and a host of blue/purplish fruits accent this super-expressive Syrah.

The 2013 Syrah Brousseau is deep, dense and powerful, with a real sense of weight and gravitas. Inky blue and purplish fruit, smoke, graphite, licorice, cured meats and earthy notes give the Brosseau its distinctly baritone-inflected personality. This is a virile and masculine Syrah and is also one of the finest wines in this range.

Copain's Syrahs are Aging Wonderfully My wine of the night – just a stunner. Dark purple color and lots of rich but tangy black and blue fruit on the nose, along with a deep sense of violets and scorched earth. Fleshy and plump on the palate but structured tannins and refreshing acidity. Blackberry and blueberry fruit, laced with smoke, violets, anise, black pepper, and a pervasive sense of minerals and iron. Gorgeous stuff that has years to go.

Try this Wine: Amazing Spring Whites One of the few exceptions to this is their Les Voisins chardonnay, of which I had the 2015. It was drinking gorgeously. The nose is just wonderful and engaging with rich honeyed cantaloupe, honeysuckle, lemon zest, crushed gravel, lemon curd and daffodil. It’s slightly on the heavy side of medium bodied. The level of polish on the structure elevates this to elegant status, and the slight streak of acid that runs through it keeps it interesting from first to last sip. The flavors are multifaceted: honeysuckle, peach, fresh apricot, honey dew and sweet lemon curd. It finishes on a wonderful green apple note and a textual sensation and flavor that conjures licking a slate slab. A fantastic wine.

One of the most distinctive wines in the range, 2014 Chardonnay Dupratt Vineyard is a wine of phenolic intensity and power. Savory herbs, chamomile, mint and crushed rocks are pushed forward, while the fruit lies more in the background. The flavors are remarkably vivid. This is a gorgeous, nuanced Chardonnay from Copain.

USA, Northern California, Napa Valley: 2016 & 2017 – A Tale of Two Vintages The 2016 Cenyth Red Wine Blend is blended of 50% Cabernet Franc, 33% Merlot and 17% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple colored, it opens with expressive baking spices, fragrant earth and vibrant red and black currant scents with touches of underbrush, pencil shavings and tar with a waft of charcuterie. Medium to full-bodied, it has a firm frame of grainy tannins and wonderful freshness framing the densely packed red and black fruit layers, finishing long.

The 2010 Cenyth is composed of 54% Merlot, 34% Cabernet Franc and 12% Cabernet Sauvignon. The alcohol is 13.4% and the fruit was sourced from the same vineyards. Very Bordeaux-like (no doubt due to the lower alcohol profile), it offers up notes of red and black currants, cedarwood, spice box, vanillin, licorice, underbrush and unsmoked cigar tobacco. The wine reveals fine-grained tannins and beautiful density and richness. Compared to the 2009, which is a Medoc-like blend, the 2010 is more of a right bank St.-Emilion-styled wine.

The talented winemaker, Dan Klick, has produced a 1999 Chardonnay that spent much of its life on its lees in 50% new French oak, primarily from Francois Freres and Damy. Grown in decomposed granite and loamy soils, this wine has an almost Coche-Dury-like liquid minerality, intermixed with sumptuous levels of orange marmalade, lemon oil, and citrus. Full-bodied, impressively delineated, yet powerfully concentrated as well as elegant, this looks to be a profound Chardonnay that should age well for 4-5 years.

A totally different animal altogether, the 2008 Chardonnay Arroyo Seco explodes with a perfume of orange blossoms, nectarine, marmalade, and quince, followed by a full-bodied, Chardonnay with both power and elegance. This is a sensational effort to drink over the next 3-5 years.

Rather than seeking out the terroir character of a particular site, Cardinal is a blend from a number of exceptinoal vineyards in both Napa and Sonoma. Winemaker Charles Thomas uses that flexibility to build a style of wine that's bold and full of personality. In '97, there's a deep well of super dense fruit that comes across as cool and rich, then explodes with flavor as it expands into the finish. That explosion is so tied to mineral and flint tannins that the wine remains seemingly tight.

It is also a top rank wine, and a star of the vintage. A saturated purple color is followed by licorice, cedar, fruit cake, and black currant aromas. Full-bodied, powerful, and concentrated, with low acidity but high tannin, this young, muscular classic should have fabulous aging potential.

A blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot, this wine is now more than 20 years old! Earthy aromatics dominate with leather, dusty earth and red cherry with red currant jelly. The texture is outrageously good as the wine shows red cherry, boysenberry jam, smoked meat and cherry tomato flavors that connect with nice tension. This fantastic showing is best enjoyed over the next decade.