The 2019 La Muse is a blend of 90% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Malbec. Deep garnet-purple in color, it skips out of the glass with bright scents of freshly crushed black and red plums, boysenberries, and Morello cherries, plus hints of garrigue, cedar chest, wet slate, and truffles plus a waft of crushed rocks. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is super intense and firm with a solid wall of ripe tannins and compelling freshness holding up a ton of expressive earth and black fruit layers, finishing with epic length. 2,500 cases were made.

Pure, classic California notes of crème de cassis, spicy oak, chalky minerality, graphite, and spring flowers emerge from the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon, a blend of 91% Cabernet Sauvignon and 9% Merlot that's sourced from multiple mountain AVAs in the valley. Full-bodied and powerful on the palate, it has a deep, rich mid-palate, beautiful tannins, notable acidity, and a great, great finish. It's another brilliant wine from Carpenter that can offer pleasure today yet also evolve for 20-25 years or more.

The 2019 Pinot Noir Hapgood is slightly more feminine, with a beautiful perfume of red and black raspberries as well as spice, rose petals, shrimp broth, and iodine-like aromas and flavors. Utterly seamless on the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, has perfectly integrated acidity, no hard edges, and a great finish. This is one of those rare wines that blends power and finesse perfectly. Drink this gorgeous, singular Pinot Noir over the coming 15-20 years.

The Cabernet Franc blend of the trio, the 2018 Le Desir is 82% Cabernet Franc, 12% Merlot, and 6% Malbec, and as with all these wines, it was brought up in new barrels. Ruby/purple and not completely opaque, it offers up a classic Cabernet Franc nose of mostly red fruits, spring flowers, damp earth, cedary spices, and truffle. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it shines for its incredible elegance and purity more than outright power, yet it still brings plenty of richness. With ultra-fine tannins, perfect balance, and one heck of a great finish, it's another great, great wine from this estate.

Lastly, the 2018 La Joie does everything right and offers a Château Lafite-like style in both its aromatics and its elegant, seamless mouthfeel. Gorgeous blackcurrants, lead pencil shavings, damp earth, unsmoked tobacco, and woodsmoke nuances all develop with time in the glass and this is one of those wines that offers something new every time you come back to the glass. Rich, medium to full-bodied, perfectly balanced, and incredibly elegant, it has ripe, polished, yet substantial tannins, remarkable purity of fruit, and a thrilling finish. Give bottles 4-5 years and it will keep for 30 years or more.

The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Helena Dakota Vineyard is even more concentrated and dense, with a massive core of ripe blackcurrants, crushed stone, leather, tobacco, spicy oak, and graphite, and it has this burning ember-like character that reminds me of a great Hermitage. More medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has remarkable balance, ultra-fine tannins, a great spine of acidity, and one heck of a finish. As with the Helena Montana Vineyard, it's a baby that needs at least 4-5 years of bottle age and will have 30+ years of longevity. It's on par with the finest Bordeaux blends coming out of California today.

Napa Valley’s 2018sThe 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District is a monster of a mountain Cabernet that has a primordial bouquet of blackcurrants, smoked earth, chocolate, and graphite. While Spring Mountain wines tend to be more aromatic and complex right out of the gate, that’s not the case here, and this is going to need bottle age to round into form. Full-bodied on the palate, with a rich, concentrated mouthfeel, it has serious tannins, notable purity of fruit, and a great finish. With air, it picks up more and more classic Spring Mountain floral and exotic notes, and it’s flawlessly balanced, with gorgeous tannins and a great, great finish. This is a brilliant wine in the lineup and unquestionably one of the true gems from Spring Mountain in 2018. Give bottles 4-5 years and enjoy over the following 2-3 decades.

The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon is based on a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot that spent 22 months in 81% new French oak. It’s a wonderfully complete, borderline perfect wine that shows the class of this estate as well as the vintage, revealing a seamless, full-bodied style that carries lots of blackcurrant, graphite, lead pencil, and tobacco aromatics, a deep, layered mid-palate, ultra-fine tannins, and flawless balance. As with most of Chris’s 2018s, it’s a wine that builds slowly with time in the glass, offering a layered, singular character. It’s a gorgeous 2018 that can be drunk today with ample pleasure, but it will ideally be given 4-6 years of bottle age, at which point it should evolve gracefully for 30-40 years.

“The Cab Franc was quite spectacular in 2017. There is a bit more in the blend this year,” Pierre Seillan told me during the tasting of the 2017s with his daughter and one day successor, Helene. A blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Cabernet Franc, 10% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot, the 2017 La Joie has a very deep garnet-purple color. It opens a little closed and broody, giving glimpses of blackcurrant cordial, espresso, charcoal and black truffles to begin, before blossoming out to a whole array of preserved black and blue fruits, dusty soil, crushed rocks and iron ore scents plus a waft of roses. The medium to full-bodied palate is built like a brick house, with firm, grainy tannins and a lively backbone supporting the muscular fruit, finishing very long and mineral laced. The alcohol weighed in at just 13.9% this year (14% on the label), making for a particularly elegant but no less impactful La Joie!

Sonoma: Another Brilliant Vintage in 2018Lastly, the 2017 Le Desir is 80% Cabernet Franc, with the balance mostly Merlot mixed with a splash of Malbec. It has a wonderful Cabernet Franc floral character as well as awesome black raspberry, cedarwood, forest floor, violets, rose petals, new leather, and who knows what else. Incredibly complex, it takes lots of air to show at its best and is medium to full-bodied, has a bright spine of acidity, fabulous tannins, and a great, great finish. The elegance of this wine paired with its richness and depth is something to behold. It’s another damn near perfect wine from this estate, and to see this quality from a challenging vintage like 2017 boggles the mind. Hats off to the father-daughter team of Pierre and Hélène Seillan.

The 2017s From Sonoma Another gem that’s going to flirt with perfection in a decade is the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rockfall Vineyard. Based on 100% Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon aged 20 months in 65% new French oak, its deep purple color is followed by a mammoth-sized bouquet of crème de cassis, lead pencil shavings, scorched earth, and graphite. Showing more spice and tobacco with time in the glass, it has incredible purity of fruit, building tannins, and flawless balance, all making for a majestic Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon that will keep for 30 years or more.

Very deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain gives up wonderfully expressive crème de cassis, licorice, tar and underbrush notes with hints of charcuterie and bay leaves. Big, rich, full and opulent in the mouth, it has firm, velvety tannins and seamless freshness, finishing very long with spice nuances coming through.

The famous Bosché Vineyard is a spot in Rutherford composed of gravelly, loamy soil and situated just at the base of the Mayacamas Mountains. A blend of 93.8% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6.2% Merlot, the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosché Vineyard was aged 28 months in French oak. This vineyard has turned out many a classic wine capable of lasting 30-40 years, and this 2013 is one of the all-time great Bosché Cabernet Sauvignons. It offers an inky ruby/purple color, a gorgeous nose of graphite, black cherry, wood spice and barbecue notes, enormous body and richness, and a heady, full-bodied, long finish of 50+ seconds with moderately high tannins. This is a great classic from Napa, but not one for drinking over the near-term. Give it 7-8 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 50 years.

Framboise, sappy spring flowers, spice, and a touch of crushed stone all emerge from the
2024 Pinot Noir Perilune, a 100% Pinot Noir vinified with 50-100% whole clusters and aged
15 months in 100% neutral oak. It's medium to full-bodied on the palate, has a VosneRomanée-like level of class, ripe tannins, and integrated acidity. Drink this complex, floral,
perfectly balanced 2024 over the coming 15 years or more. Drink 2026-2041.

The 2023 La Muse is a blend of 89% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 5% Malbec. Deep garnet-purple colored, it charges out of the gate with bold notes of juicy plums, blackberry preserves, and black cherry compote, giving way to suggestions of dried mint, star anise, black olives, and garrigue. The full-bodied palate is energetic and plush with velvety tannins and a refreshing backbone, finishing long and spicy. 

Gorgeous. The most of the three and strikingly pure once again. Plummy in its fruit profile, with a lovely quite distinct damson stone note alongside the plump dark berries and graphite. There’s a little hint of rose peppercorn, gently crushed, with the slight florality that imparts. There’s a hint too of walnut shell and the subtlest suggestion of cedar. And then a little peony. We could almost be in Pomerol from the aromatics. Ample, full, supremely crystalline and pure, the product of a very gentle extraction. Sunny, but subtly so. The luminous quality of the mid-palate is incredible. Another gravity-defying wine from Vérité, with incredible lift. A staggering wine and not perhaps what you expect from Sonoma Merlot. I can’t remember a better La Muse. 98.

This clonal selection stands out ever so slightly above the lineup of always meticulously crafted yet hedonistically delicious wines by Greg Brewer. The nose's potent Bing cherry drive cruises above flashes of wet slate and uplifting baking spice. The acid-powered palate is utterly expressive in bright, burstingly ripe red fruit that's offset by a background hint of mossy earth, proving hard not to swallow even in the morning

From Block 30, planted in 1946 by Frederick Smart and his son Bernard. The '24 season was warmer than '23, but the lineage of elegance and medium-bodied finesse continues. This is up there with the best Ovitellis, so fragrant and savoury, so much more enchanting on day 2, and even more on days 3 and 4. Dried cranberry and red cherry, pomegranate, dehydrated and ground orange peel, pressed and fresh wildflowers. The nose is mesmerising, swirling with rose, musk, wild fennel and medina spice, heady with exotica. Transparent, nothing heavy or sweet, just such poise, such harmony, nothing out of place, yet nothing forced or over polished. The tannins are fine, chewy and layered, the length spectacular.

Deep red-purple colour with a complex bouquet comprising dried cherry, earthy/stony notes, cola and dried herbs, while the flavours of black cherry, plum and spice build in the mouth, leaving a long tail of cola and herb tonic, the tannins lavish but fine and supple, and in superb balance swirling around the core of sweet fruit. Power and elegance combined. A very intense, top-level grenache that will age superbly, although it drinks remarkably well right now. 15 Jul 2026

Planted in '87 in Gladysdale at 400m. This vineyard gets picked a full month after Tarraford and Sexton! This is the third and best wine Giant Steps has made from this cool site. A very bright green gold. Penetrating aromas of crushed rock, nashi pear, ruby grapefruit and orange blossom. It's pure and precise on the palate, with a saline acid line giving the wine structure and length. A special wine that will age effortlessly over the next decade.

This clonal selection stands out ever so slightly above the lineup of always meticulously crafted yet hedonistically delicious wines by Greg Brewer. The nose's potent Bing cherry drive cruises above flashes of wet slate and uplifting baking spice. The acid-powered palate is utterly expressive in bright, burstingly ripe red fruit that's offset by a background hint of mossy earth, proving hard not to swallow even in the morning

This wine is soaked in sunshine. Red fruits on the nose convey red plum, Bing cherry, sage, dried brush, and clove. Light barrel toast allows the fruit to shine. The palate is fresh with orchard fruit, strawberry, raspberry, watermelon radish, orange zest, hibiscus, chicory, and supple, silky tannins on the finish. Drink now or cellar until 2038.

So seductive and perfumed, showing endless charm and poise. Aromas of wild red berries, rose petals, sea spray, fresh herbs, hibiscus and violets. The seamlessly integrated palate has no hard edges, carried by bright acidity and a rounded mouthfeel with a silken, ethereal texture. Pure class of the highest order, combining vivid, fresh fruit with a savory, floral edge. Excellent. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

Looking to the 2022 La Joie, it pours a deeper youthful red/purple hue and leads
with appealing layers of graphite, kirsch, blackcurrants, cedar, and floral
perfume. Full-bodied, with plush, even tannins, it has an approachable, velvety
structure and terrific levity. A charming wine to enjoy now or over the coming
20 years, the blend is 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, 7% Merlot,
and 6% Petit Verdot.

Pouring a slightly deeper bright yellow hue, the 2023 Chardonnay Upper Barn Vineyard comes from AXR1 rootstock, and there is absolutely nothing about this vineyard that feels in decline. Dark flinty reduction gives the wine incredible dimension and complexity, though in a more refined and less obvious way than some past vintages. Lime candy, green apple, saline minerality, and driving acidity frame the silky richness. This is highly complex and built for the cellar. Drink 2027-2040.