Medium to deep ruby-purple colored, the 2015 Hartford Court Pinot Noir Jennifer’s leaps from the glass with exuberant raspberry preserves, cranberry tart and black forest cake notes with touches of wild thyme, red roses and menthol. Medium to full-bodied, the palate simply sings of red and black berry flavors complimented with dried herbs and savory notes, supported by firm, very fine-grained tannins and great freshness, finishing very long and perfumed. Should age wonderfully!

From a cooler, windy site south of Sebastopol, the 2015 Pinot Noir Jennifer's is a bigger, richer, structured effort. Blackcurrants, black cherries, graphite, scorched earth and beautiful violet notes give way to a concentrated, fresh, tannic Pinot Noir that certainly has the fruit and texture to shine now but will be even better in 2-3 years.

Stone Côte is sourced from a block within the Durell vineyard. It receives native yeast fermentation and is barrel fermented in French oak, 37% new, where it ages for 16 months prior to being bottled unfined and unfiltered. The 2015 Stone Côte Vineyard Chardonnay offers mind-blowingly gorgeous ripe pineapple, peach blossom and pink grapefruit notes with a gregarious undercurrent of candied ginger, allspice, butterscotch and brioche. Big, rich and full-bodied, there’s a seductive oiliness to the texture with fantastic concentration of a very long finish.

Very deep garnet-purple colored, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosche Vineyard, composed of 94.1% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5.9% Merlot, has an expressive, savory nose of black olives, roasted nuts and sandalwood with a core of cassis, blackberry pie and unsmoked cigars. Medium to full-bodied and laden with black fruits, earth and baking spice notions, it has a firm structure of grainy tannins and lovely freshness, finishing long. Forget it for 2-4 years and drink it over the next 25+.

Deep ruby-red. Vibrant nose offers cassis, blackberry, licorice, minerals, tobacco leaf and violet. Rich, tactile and deep, offering outstanding energy for the vintage. Boasts a rare combination of explosive fruit intensity and elegance. Builds and echoes dramatically on the vibrant, nuanced finish, which saturates the palate with dark fruits and minerals. This shut down in the glass but my recorked bottle showed uncanny freshness after three days in the refrigerator.

Bright ruby-red. Aromas of crushed cassis, bitter chocolate and espresso called to mind a top Pauillac. Densely packed and sappy, offering outstanding precision of dark fruit and mineral flavors and inner-mouth floral perfume. Still quite tight but the wine's building tannins and palate-staining length suggest that it will go on in bottle for two decades or more.

The exceptional 2022 Merlot Skysill Vineyard is made from one block of Merlot and is a structural, grippy wine that softens on the finish. Complex layers of full bodied red fruit and earth take on a meaty density with plenty of muscle and the potential to age 12–15 years.

A beautiful debut, the 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Red Mountain is softly layered, elegant, and structured, coming predominantly from the region’s Quintessence Vineyard. Crisp red fruit is seasoned in dried sage, the firm tannins framing the wine enough to match the powerful spice and wood notes from 20 months of French oak aging, 58% new. While showing impressive finesse, the volume of the wine is full bodied and generous, coating a long, lengthy finish. This is a good one to hold in the cellar and enjoy 2030–2035.

The 2023 Pinot Noir Land's Edge Vineyard is a youthful ruby color and is spicy and bright with notes of wild raspberries, fresh wildflowers, salty earth, hints of anise, and dark stones. The palate is focused, balanced, and even, with a stony texture and fresh acidity, its more savory and smoky incense notes lasting on the finish. Drink 2026-2040.

An inky dark red color, the 2021 Helena Montana Vineyard is entirely composed of Cabernet Sauvignon from this more coastally influenced site and was aged for 15 months in 85% new French oak. The nose is lush with aromas of graphite, polished leather, fresh plums, sweet tobacco, and lavender. Full-bodied and refined, it boasts a velvety texture, with a long finish and an incredible structure that will make this wine truly shine over the long haul. Give this another year or two in the bottle, though it will drink beautifully and continue to improve over the next several years. Drink: 2027-2047. 990 cases were produced.

The Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet comes from Phinny and the Andrews Family sites, including the 16 block used in the Trothe Cabernet. Gorgeous structure that is classically from the appellation, with fine tannins and firm minerality that buoy the brilliant black fruits. Silken black fruits, whisps of dark chocolate and even dried mint leaves.

The 2022 release of Yangarra’s top Shiraz states its position and makes you listen to it. A brooding iodine and, dare I say, ‘iron-like’ minerality sits deep and restrained first off before an unfurling of charred herbs, woodsmoke, nutmeg, cassia bark and a glimmer of menthol. Black cherry, blackberry pastille and damson plum make an appearance following some aeration, alongside earth, gentle mocha, clove and dark chocolate. This has a dramatic sensibility – it’s deep and dark with excellent restraint and control. The palate runs a dichotomy of a cooling, ferrous mineral feel alongside dark, febrile power. It strides through the mouth with unabated assurance and lashings of dark cherry, mocha, earth, dark chocolate, blackberry, cassia and dried herbs. The tannins are vertical, stacked and grainy providing a funnel for the complex power to coil within. There’s seemingly endless length to this wine. It’s powerful and of course youthful, but any risk of heftiness is cut up and lifted by mineral detail and pulled into focus and precision by architectural structure. All of this paired with kaleidoscopic complexity makes for a wine of incontrovertible brilliance.

100% Grenache taken from Block 30 – 2 hectares planted in 1946 and adjacent to the Highs Sands block. Another McLaren Vale Grenache that elicits excitement for the grape and place. This is impressive in its balance of brightness and perfume while still wonderfully cerebral and complex. Lifted aromas of sweet raspberry compote, macerated strawberry and red liquorice lead before a cut of white pepper spice acts as a savoury foil. Very pretty and seductively perfumed. There’s a warm sand note beneath which is a common note of high quality modern day McLaren Vale Grenache (almost too obvious a note given the sandy soils) some dried garrigue adding further savouriness, dried cranberry, black tea. There’s a distinct river stone minerality shooting through its centre, too. This is very pretty, though not at the expense of immense depth and intrigue. The palate is racy, mineral, cool and lifted with pretty pops of raspberry, red apple flesh, cranberry, and red rose crunched within a vein of powder-coated tannins and fresh acidity with the sand and dried herb notes lingering beneath. The finish is long and crunchy with red apple skin tension and red liquorice appeal. An ethereal Ovitelli Grenache from the cool 2023 vintage.

Sourced from Block 12 (2.3 Ha) which sits on a south-east facing, ironstone sandy outcrop. There’s a compelling nutty and woody spice complexity straight out of the gate with hazelnut, cassia bark, pine needle and softly sweet clove emanating to draw you in. A good swirl of the glass reveals a subtly charry and ashy note along with tilled earth and paperbark. It’s all about savouriness over fruit to begin with, in part thanks to a sheath of reduction, but some fruit notes do appear in the form of blackberry pastille and blood plum with herb-crusted meat, freshly roasted coffee beans and gentle dark chocolate adding to the show. The palate follows suit in its savoury aesthetic highlighting mocha, dried herbs, meat and iodine over black cherry, blackberry and subtle pops of blueberry with a lifted and iodine-mineral feel. All of this before an assertion of fine-but-firm tannins frame it through a mocha-laced finish with cassia bark permeating the mouth perfume. There’s a lifted and mineral feel to the palate, it glides along without a hint of weightiness. Another class act.

Aged 15 months in neutral French Oak, this pure and polished red shows noble structure, with finely-chisled tannins and fresh-cut aciditiy filling the velvety and textural mouthfeel. Refined blackberry and blueberry fruit glide across the finish with nuances of crushed pebble, bacon, olive, dried lavender spice and dark plum, each fontrbituing to the voerall elegance and elevated stature. A standout version from the Walla Walla Valley.

Ethereal in structure, there's sensational concentration of fruit without being overly weighty in the least. Energetic red and black fruit take center stage, with beautifully rendered black cherry, blackberry and dark plum nuanced with sophisticated cedar and graphite. Along the way, there's a tinge of iron bay lead, and lively flecks of savory spice that become entrenched among grippy, powdery tannins surrounding the sleek finish, Delicious now, built for the celler.

Deep crimson. Classical blackberry dark chocolate aromas with hints of rose petal/ aniseed. Superbly concentrated wine with ample blackberry, dark chocolate, espresso flavours, vigorous chocolaty textures and underlying savoury roasted walnut mores. Finishes claret firm with inky chinotto notes. Polished and glossy. Should develop very well. Drink now – 2036

Pale colour. Lifted apricot, white peach ginger aromas with tonic water, flinty nuances. Very expressive and creamy textured with apricot, white peach, camomile flavours, fine looseknit chalky textures, lovely mid-palate viscosity and well-integrated quartz-like acidity. Flinty, bittersweet and mouthwatering at the finish. Bloody good. 56% grenache blanc 17% grenache gris 17% rousanne 7% clairette 3% bourboulenc. Drink now – 2028+

The 2022 Siduri Perilune Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Sta. Rita Hills showcases a vivid expression of site with purity and precision. Sourced from a rugged, stone-laced hillside vineyard established in 2016, this Pinot saw only a minimal touch of whole cluster during fermentation, allowing the vineyard character to shine through. It opens with aromatic layers of ripe lingonberry, wild tropical fruit, and cranberry reduction, underscored by crushed seashells and a distinct stony resonance. The palate is sleek yet intense, framed by chalky tannins and a vein of vibrant acidity that propels flavors of red currant, blood orange, and sage. Texturally polished but braced with coastal drive, it delivers a compelling mix of ripeness and mineral grip. There’s a tactile energy to the wine—saline edges and volcanic dust mingle with dried herbs and iron-rich earth. 200 cases produced. Highly recommended.

The 2022 Siduri Soberanes Vineyard Pinot Noir emerges from the windswept slopes of the Santa Lucia Highlands with striking depth. Incorporating 15% whole cluster and matured for 10 months in 40% new French oak, this wine delivers a captivating interplay of richness and aromatic complexity. The nose is bold and layered, brimming with crushed cherry, pomegranate molasses, and hints of clove-studded blood orange. Swirling in the glass, undertones of black tea, toasted fennel, and dried fig surface, all laced with a faint smokiness from the oak. On the palate, it’s lavish and enveloping, yet never heavy, delivering a flood of ripe red fruit wrapped in silky tannins and grounded by earthy undertones of cedar bark and cured tobacco. The whole cluster inclusion brings a subtle herbal lift that brightens the finish, providing contrast to its darker, spicier edges. Each sip unfolds with precision and evolving nuance—this is a site-driven Pinot that manages to be both hedonistic and finely structured. 259 cases made. Highly recommended.

Along with the chardonnay, this is an exciting new addition to the Giant Steps range. A blend of all the single-vineyard wines and mainly from the vineyards in the Upper Yarra. 40% whole bunches. Gently brooding with aromas of wild black cherries and raspberries along with some whole-bunch–derived fennel seed spice and a touch of violets. Concentrated, with far more stuffing that the Yarra Pinot. Ripe, suave tannins ensure this will be worth cellaring for at least five to eight years.

An exciting new addition to the Giant Steps range, this new blend of all the single-vineyard wines is an absolute cracker and sits very comfortably in the range, both qualitatively and price-wise. Aromas of gently grilled nuts, confit lemon and a touch of struck match can all be found on the bouquet, while the palate is chalky, tensile and long. By the time this is released in June it should be singing.

This wine is the epitome of Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Noir. It’s expressive and balanced in its own unique way. The nose is brimming with wafts of brandied cherries, pomegranate, and strawberry rhubarb pie. The mouthfeel is wildly engaging with a deep core of fruit that coats the palate.

The 2022 Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple in color, it struts out with classic crème de cassis, juicy plums, and cedar chest notes, giving way to hints of bay leaves, licorice, and underbrush. The medium- to full-bodied palate is wonderfully elegant with fine-grained tannins and refreshing acidity, finishing on a minerally note.

The 2022 Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Deep garnet-purple in color, it needs a little shaking to wake up notes of fresh black and red currants and black raspberries, leading to suggestions of wild thyme, spice box, and fallen leaves. The medium- to full-bodied palate is coated with juicy red and black fruits, supported by firm, grainy tannins and bold freshness, finishing with a savory lift.