Santa Barbara: An In-Depth Look at the 2018sThe 2018 Pinot Noir 459 is a brooding, inward wine. Menthol, pine, sage, spice and a whole range of intensely floral/savory notes make a strong first impression. The tannins are quite potent at this stage, so readers need to be a bit patient. This clone, originally from the Jura, yields a distinctive Pinot Noir with a strong tannic imprint, as is evident in tasting the 2018.

Santa Barbara: An In-Depth Look at the 2018sThe 2018 Pinot Noir 3D is exotic and beautifully layered in the glass. Sweet red cherry, cinnamon, orange peel and a host of floral/savory overtones open up first. The 3D emerges from a sandy site, which along with the whole clusters, yields a Pinot with notable aromatic breadth. The 2018 is deep and yet also light on its feet, with superb resonance and a real sense of vibrancy. The 3D needs a few hours of air to open up, as it has so much going on.

Pale salmon-bronze; a bone dry rose with a rapier thrust to its flavours and their glittering acidity, the finish long and equally intense.

A highly esoteric blend of 74% grenache blanc, 12% roussanne, 6% clairaut, 5% picpoul and 3% bourbelenc that is winemaker Peter Fraser's salute to the wines of centuries past. Lest anyone think the vinification is of similar natural antiquity, think again. It will grow rich and textured as it ages.

The 2018s from Santa Barbara CountyLastly, the 2017 Pinot Noir Fiddlestix Vineyard reveals a similar translucent ruby/plum color and offers a more gamey, herbal style in its darker currant and cherry fruits as well as notes of leafy herbs, earth, and briny minerality. Medium-bodied, beautifully balanced, and elegant on the palate, it has a more rounded texture and a great finish. Drink it over the coming 7-8 years or so.

The 2018s from Santa Barbara CountyThe 2017 Chardonnay Signature Collection Katherine's Vineyard plays in the same richer style yet brings another level of purity and precision. Terrific stone fruits, toasted bread, caramelized peach, and spicy notes all emerge from the glass, and it's medium to full-bodied and has a round, elegant texture, good acidity, and a great finish. It's impressive.

Shimmering ruby-red. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes ripe red fruit, exotic spices, cola and vanilla, along with a smoky mineral overtone. Densely packed and lively on the palate, offering mineral-laced black raspberry, cherry cola, floral pastille and spicecake flavors that steadily deepen and spread out with air. Delivers both power and finesse and finishes impressively long and subtly chewy, delivering well-knit tannins and resonating floral and spice notes. 33% new oak.

Limpid ruby. A powerfully scented bouquet evokes ripe red and blue fruits, vanilla, incense and candied licorice, and a suave floral pastille nuance builds in the glass. Sappy, broad and expansive in the mouth, offering sweet black raspberry, boysenberry and cola flavors supported by a core of juicy acidity. Closes on a youthfully tannic note, showing fine clarity and spicy thrust and leaving sweet red fruit preserve and vanilla notes behind.

Deep crimson. Powerful red and blue fruit liqueur, potpourri, incense and smoky mineral scents are complemented by hints of cola and exotic spices. Alluringly sweet and penetrating on the palate, offering densely packed, spice-laced cherry, black raspberry, boysenberry and floral pastille flavors and a strong undercurrent of smoky minerality. Fine-grained tannins frame and shape a powerful, mineral-driven finish that lingers with superb persistence and a sweetening touch of vanilla.

My favorite vintage of this wine to date, the 2017 Roux Beaute Roussanne displays lovely honeyed aromas and scents of orange marmalade and pineapple. It's medium to full-bodied, with a plush, silky feel on the palate and long, white pepper-laced finish. Two-thirds of the final blend spent 131 days on skins, while one-third underwent normal, off-the-skins white winemaking. It should drink well for at least 4-5 years.

The 2017 Ovitelli Grenache spent 138 days on skins in its ceramic eggs. It's floral and roseate on the nose, with notes of cranberry and pie cherry as well. Medium to full-bodied yet taut on the palate, its slightly grippy tannins ultimately turn soft and delicate on the long, tart finish.

In its first vintage, the 2017 King's Wood Shiraz has made a splashy debut. Made with 25% whole clusters and aged in a 25-hectoliter foudre, the nose boasts subtle shadings of dried spices and cracked pepper set against a backdrop of boysenberry and blueberry. In the mouth, it's medium to full-bodied, silky but firm in feel, with a crisp, mouthwatering finish. A modern, stylish take on South Australian Shiraz worth trying, especially for consumers who haven't kept up with regional trends.

Produced in ceramic eggs (hence the name), the 2018 Ovitelli Grenache comes from a vineyard block just adjacent to the High Sands block. Scents of Provençal herbs join strawberries and raspberries on the nose, while the medium-bodied palate is fine and silky, with a long, long finish. This remarkable effort spent a whopping 158 days on the skins post-fermentation, resulting in an exceedingly elegant tannin structure.

The 2017 High Sands Grenache comes from a cool vintage and hence had a longer hang time than most others and a higher pH, which makes it paradoxically more approachable than some warmer years. Delicate raspberry and strawberry nuances mark the nose, as the bulk of the wine was aged in older barrels, with some spending time in ceramic egg as well. It's medium-bodied and silky in texture, with a lingering red-fruit finish.

Produced from a 50-50 mix of whole clusters and destemmed fruit, the 2017 Elder Hill Grenache features aromas of ripe cherries and dry earth. Matured in older (four or more years old) Burgundy barrels, it's medium to full-bodied, framed by soft, dusty tannins. Savory notions of dried spices—pepper, clove and allspice—linger elegantly on the long finish.

The 2017 Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty classically made and styled, with notes of cassis, cedar and vanilla on the nose. Befitting the cooler vintage, it's a bit more medium-bodied and streamlined than some other years, with ample acidity and firm tannins on the crisp, tangy finish. It's a structural wine, rather than a generous, plush one, that's for sure, but it should come good in a few years' time.

A dark earthy wine, the Pinot Noir Gran Moraine Vineyard offers ripe dark berry and dried dark cherry fruit flavors. It is elegant and superbly balanced with a soft texture, dense extract, and savory notes. Still quite youthful, it displays firm round tannins and a long, rich finish. Yamhill Carlton is located in a relatively warm area of the Willamette Valley with the earliest harvest dates, but Gran Moraine and its 220 acres is located to the west and receives a cooling influence from the Pacific.

The Pinot Noir Barbieri Vineyard offers aromas of dark red berries and plum with spice notes. It has a silky texture and a full mouth feel with considerable purity of flavor. It is an elegant wine, beautifully balanced and persistent on the finish a good sense of refinement. The Barbieri Ranch was originally planted by an Italian immigrant, Italo Barbieri, on Olivet Rd northwest of Santa Rosa. It was later (1970) purchased by the De Loach family and when they filed for bankruptcy in 2003, it was resold to the Boisset family, and the old vine Zinfandel was ripped out in favor of Pinot Noir.

Ye olde bush vines and biodynamic farming. All old oak here. Inky thing this release. More brooding. More/different tannin. Quite rich and ripe feeling, slippery texture segues to sheets on sheets of grippy, puckering, powdery tannin. It’s quite brutish and rough house as a release under this High Sands guise, not lesser for it, but misses a little of the finesse of previous. Booze soaked cherry scents and flavours, a bit breathy and warming in sniff and tongue, around this, lavish spice, ripe fruit, dried fruit and savoury things like salted liquorice, salt bush and faint game meat characters. Packs in plenty of detail, lots to sink teeth into.

This very attractive and fragrant wine composed of predominantly Cabernet Franc (73% - from 16 different blocks of vines, along with 17% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon) needs some time to open, despite the fact that it is showing decidedly tertiary aromas. While the aromas are immediately inviting, the palate initially feels a bit tough and reserved. The Franc gives notes of tobacco leaf - even cigar wrapper - along with dried cranberries and cherries. There's also a very evident scorched earth note. So Italian, so Tuscan, this is a wine for a table set with hearty fare. The tannins and acidity hold equal voices here. There is a toughness to both that give an angularity to the wine, despite its full body and ample alcohol - the latter thanks to the Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The big positive is that there is no obvious mouth-coating glycerol and the high-ish abv is well contained. The finish lingers with dried sage and savory spices. It's a dramatic, meaty wine that is worth a try when you want a steak knife sort of wine in your glass. Drinking well now, this is hitting its autumn. Drink: 2020-23

A stunning Classico with deep color, smooth texture and luscious berry fruit; structured and juicy with exceptional length.

This light-yellow colored Chardonnay from Kendall Jackson is very impressive! It opens with a toasted oak, vanilla, pineapple and lemon bouquet. On the palate, this wine is medium bodied, very well balanced and smooth. The flavor profile is a rich oak and Bartlett pear blend with notes of pineapple, butter and ripe apple. The finish is dry and its flavors drift away nicely. This Chard is pure a California style and will be loved by those that like it that way. I would pair it with baked stuffed lobster.

The Merlot is pretty much the weakest link in the range, though it’s a very good wine in its own right, regardless.Savoury, toasty, black olive and black fruit, with a little lemon zest and mint. It’s medium-bodied, roast beef and olives, something of a Campari tang, fine-grained tannin, redcurrant and blackberry on a slightly charry finish. The flavour profile is a little left-of-centre, but the wine is very good.