Classic Monterey Pinot, dry, crisp, silky and ripe. The fine 2007 vintage has made it explosive in cherries, currants, sassafras and cola, with refined, new oak notes of smoke and spice. Drink this rich wine now through 2013.

Cherry jam, barnyard, spicy, soy, celery, vanilla, cardamom, prune plum aromas. Ripe, round, rich, supple palate with good acidity balance. Smoky, spicy, savoury, celery salt, carrot, orange, cherry jam, plum and vanilla flavours with some tea leaf notes. A bit warm but there is delicious fruit and textures for current drinking. The biggest change here is the finesse and elegance this wine is developing as the vines age. The nose is ripe with bits of celery salt and soya and red fruit aromas mixed with dried herbs. The mid-palate is silky smooth and soft with delicious earthy, strawberry, spicy fruit flavours. It's still aged 10 months in 100 percent French oak but the new oak in the '07 edition is down to 43 percent that seems to be helping this pinot show better richness and complexity.

The latest Seco Highlands pinot is another jump up in finesse and elegance. There is also more black cherry fruit this year, and a little less of the spicy, carrot top and rhubarb flavours. Fine mid-palate weight, with smoky black fruit in the finish. Refined textures. It is aged 10 months in 100 percent French oak and 50 percent of that is new. Impressive.

Shows the polish and finesse of a wine costing far more. Made from selected Monterey vineyards and with considerable new French oak, the wine is flashy and complex, with cherry, cola, pomegranate and spice flavors and a rich earthiness that suggests sautéed mushrooms or truffles. Really notable for its balance and depth.

A real star in this portfolio is the 2007 Grand Reserve Syrah. Exuberant, flamboyant, flowery blackberry and cassis notes, along with some meat juices and bouquet garnish, jump from the glass of this densely purple-colored wine. Full-bodied, opulent, and seductive, it should be drunk in its first 7-8 years of life.

Inky dark and tannic, with a full-bodied mouthfeel. Shows very ripe flavors of red and black cherries, currants, anise, dark chocolate and smoky cedar. Quite rich, if a bit ponderous now, but should develop lightness and purity over the next 6-8 years as the tannins drop out.

Huge and intense in every respect. Dark and extracted, high in toasty oak, dense in tannins, tingly in acidity, and most of all, enormous in fruit. Waves of plum and blackberry cascade across the palate, ending in a burst of spice and mocha. Drink now through 2010.

Lush berry fruit and lovely smoky oak; dense and smooth, rich and long.

Sonoma County here, and I think I was told the grapes come mainly from the Alexander Valley and Knights Valley. Winemaster Randy Ullom says a long cold soak pre-fermentation is a key to the texture of this wine - gentle extraction of tannin using water as the medium, rather than alcohol. Plum, chocolate, gentle spice, light floral notes and vanilla oak. Medium bodied, tobacco savoury flavours in the mix, ripe tannin - a bit of grip here - but nice flow through the mouth with olive and tobacco on the finish. A delight for Merlot fanciers, no doubt.

Polished and well-structured, exhibiting the supple texture you expect in a top Merlot. Features a complex core, with aromas of blackberry and dried herb opening to flavors of black cherry, spice and lead pencil.

This Merlot starts off tough and tannic, with rich flavors of blackberries, currants and toasty oak, girded with minerals and spices and finishing totally dry. It feels elegant and balanced, showing a fine sense of control. Drink over the next 5-6 years.

It's all there with this rich Merlot. Fabulously lush in currants, mocha and cedar, it also displays great balance and charm. The tannins are superfine. Drink this beauty now through 2010.

The vineyard gets the benefit of cool breezes via the Petaluma Gap. The structure is very polished, with firm tannins and brisk acids framing blackberry, cherry, blueberry, cola and spice flavors. Notable for its richness and finesse, and a great success for a California Merlot.

When the pinot geeks trashed merlot in the movie Sideways, it wasn't the Taylor Peaks of the world they had in mind. This 100 percent Bennett Valley red is as good as Sonoma Mountain merlot gets. The powerful, mouth-filling red spends 13 months in 46 percent new French oak. The result is a sophisticated mix of cool blueberry fruit flavours flecked with licorice, tobacco and exotic bits of orange peel. Impressive Right Bank Bordeaux-styling, with plenty of fine-grained tannins to take it the distance. Cellar through 2015.

Only 500 cases were produced of this thick, tannic, complex wine from Sonoma County. It's cellar worthy and hard, dray and astringent now in dense cherry, cassis and mocha flavors that finish with wonderful length and harmony. You can drink it now, but you must adjust for the tannins. Otherwise, cellar until at least 2008.

Made solidly in the style of Jess Jackson's mountain estate wines, a dark, dense Merlot of great intensity and weight. It possesses a laserlike concentration of sweet cassis and cherry fruit that is wrapped in significant tannins. Meets the challenge with such wines and achieves balance and finesse.

The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Stature is made in a soft, voluptuous style that is sure to find many admirers. This is an especially plush style for Sonoma, with soft contours and plenty of forward fruit that add to the wine's immediacy. Sweet red cherry, rose petals, chalk, mint and white pepper add lift and brightness throughout.

Gold Medal

This is a brawny, meaty and thick wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown on mountains, hillsides and ridges of Alexander Valley and Knights Valley. The tannins grip as smoky oak gives it additional weight and power around huge layers of peppery clove and black currant.

The 2009 Stature is a deep, fleshy wine graced with supple dark red fruit, flowers, sweet spices and licorice. This is a radiant, approachable style, but there is lovely minerality and focus from the presence of several high-altitude sites that suggests the wine will drink well for a number of years. The blend is 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 7% Petit Verdot and 4% Malbec, mostly sourced from Stagecoach, Veeder and Keyes. Anticipated maturity: 2014-2029.

Doesn't have quite the sheer ravishing power of the winery's Trace Ridge Cabernet, but this Cab-based Bordeaux blend is nuanced and possibly more complex and Bordeaux-like. The flavors are of currants, blackberries, cherries, anise and cedar, aged in 78% new French oak.

The 2007 Highland Estates Proprietary Red Trace Ridge (66% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Merlot and the rest Malbec) is a beauty. Dark ruby/purple with a Graves-like nose of unsmoked cigar tobacco, crushed rocks, blueberries, black currant, and cherries, the wine is full-bodied, with silky tannins, an endearing, full-bodied texture, and a long finish. It is another impressive wine that should evolve for at least 15 or more years.

The last and most expensive wine in the entire Kendall-Jackson hierarchy is the 2004 Stature. A proprietary blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Petit Verdot, Malbec, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc, most of this comes from three separate vineyards in Napa Valley. Dark ruby/purple in color, with notes of creosote, graphite, blackberry and cassis with some pain grillé notes in the background, this wine has beautiful purity, full-bodied power, high tannin, but is balanced by equally impressive levels of fruit and extract. It definitely needs 5-6 years of cellaring and should keep for two decades.

Mainly from Rutherford, a beautiful wine. Opens with alluring aromas of blackcurrant and cassis and the tilting perfume of French Oak, with its smoky vanillins. In the mouth, supple and polished, long on Cabernet flavor, with rich, sumptuous tannins. The tannins are already melted, making it drinkable now.