This succulent red combines strawberry and cherry fruit, with earth, iron and tobacco flavors. Elegant and detailed, unfolding to reveal a lingering aftertaste of red fruit, mineral and earth elements. Best from 2023 through 2038. 600 cases made, 150 cases imported.

Aromas of black-skinned berry, charred earth and new leather lift out of the glass. The concentrated medium-bodied palate offers dried black cherry, tobacco, star anise and orange zest alongside austere fine-grained tannins and firm acidity. Drink 2023–2032.

Nice deep red color. Pure aromas of red plum and ripe strawberry, with notes of minerals and balsamic oils. Soft and rich in the mouth, with an unctuous texture and insidious sweetness. Rather broad in flavor for this bottling and much rounder than usual; no doubt the warmer 2015 vintage contributed a certain measure of fat here. An excellent Brunello that finishes long.

The talented Andrea Lonardi established Val di Suga's single-vineyard project in 2012. He adapts the winemaking for each in order to best express the individual terroirs. In the cool, northern reaches of Montalcino, Vigna del Lago is typically the last to ripen and lightest in body. It ages exclusively in large 50-hectolitre casks. All red fruit, floral and citrus nuances, this is buoyant, bright and exuberant and the soft tannins are seductively textured. Ready now. Drinking Window 2020 - 2028.

This shows focus and balance, compared to some of the other Brunellos here in this year. Full body, creamy and ripe tannins with roundness and beauty. Lovely already. Drink or hold.

A bigger, richer wine, the 2017 Chardonnay UV El Diablo Vineyard comes from a great site in the Russian River. Aged a year in one-third new French oak, its medium golden hue is followed by a Meursault-like bouquet of buttered stone fruits, Meyer lemons, flower oil, crushed rock, and toasty oak. Rich, full-bodied, and concentrated on the palate, it has terrific acidity, flawless balance, and depth and richness to spare. It's a stunning bottle of Chardonnay that will benefit from a year in bottle and cruise for 7-8 years or more.

The appellation 2017 Chardonnay Russian River Valley spent 12 months in just 20% new French oak. This medium gold-hued Chardonnay offers a beautiful nose of orchard fruits, honeyed citrus, green almonds, toasted bread, and flower oil. Rich, full-bodied, and opulent on the palate, it has subtle background oak, rocking levels of fruit and texture, good acidity, and a great finish.

One of the large single vineyard releases, the 2017 Chardonnay Banfield Vineyard comes from a site in the Russian River and was whole cluster pressed and fermented and aged 12 months in one-third new French oak. After a year, it was moved to stainless steel tanks for six months before bottling. Notes of Meyer lemons, baked apples, crushed rocks, honeyed flowers, and spice all emerge from the glass, and it's rich and full-bodied on the palate, with plenty of structure and depth as well as good acidity. More reserved and tight, it's another effort from this estate that needs a year of bottle age

A classic effort, the 2017 Pinot Noir UV Lucky Well Vineyard is another fresh, focused red from Arista that has lots of mulberry and raspberry fruit as well as notes of savory herbs, dried earth, and spice. Playing in the medium-bodied, elegant end of the spectrum, with good acidity and fine yet notable tannins, it has a core of sweet fruit but almost has a Sonoma Coast-like texture and structure. Give bottles a year or two and enjoy through 2027+.

A different beast from the Russian River releases, the 2017 Pinot Noir Ferrington Vineyard comes from the Anderson Valley and is one of the fresher, more Burgundian styled wines in the lineup. It offers notes of forest floor, savory red and black fruits, flowers, and sappy herbs. Tight, vibrant, and juicy on the palate, with good acidity and silky tannins, it needs air to show at its best, and my money is on it benefiting from 2-3 years of bottle age.

The 2019 Rosé di Adele from Feudo Montoni lifts from the glass with a pretty yet understated bouquet, showing sweet florals with hints of mint leaf, ripe apple, and gingery spice. On the palate, soft textures are offset by zesty acids and saline-minerals, as its fruit leans more toward ripe melon and sweet herbs. The finish is medium in length, yet mouthwatering and just begging me to take another sip. This is yet another Nerello Mascalese Rosato that’s truly worth the hunt.

There are some 2,000 bottles of the 2017 Moulin-à-Vent Champ de Cour, one of the lieux-dits that was least impacted by the year's hail storms. Revealing aromas of cherries, dark berry fruit, candied peel and vanilla pod, it's full-bodied, layered and chewy, with firm tannins and an oak-inflected finish. There's clearly serious raw material here and thoughtful vilification, too, but I can't help feeling that the wine's fruit is somewhat surpassed on the palate by the supplemental oak phenolics. In short, the question is whether this Moulin-à-Vent will ever become truly charming? My score gives

Mid crimson. Bottled. This was the only cuvée they were able to make in 2017 because of the hail. Red fruit but a little darker than the château blend. A little more spicy. Concentrated fruit on the mid palate, very good depth and intensity and the oak spice just hinted at. Really long and with freshness to the finish. Needs time.

This 7.9-acre parcel faces east on a slope of colluvial deposits from the hills above, the vines growing in granitic sand over clay, producing thick-skinned grapes with relatively high acidity. One-third of this lot aged in barrel, the rest in stainless steel, coming together in an elegant wine that shows its youthful power with finesse. It fills the mouth with silken layers of green plum, pomegranate, herbal spice and floral tension, flavors that last in a complex matrix. Enjoy this over the next four or five years, while waiting for the domaine’s 2016 Les Vérillats to mellow.

Pale blackish crimson. Very shaded. Exotically ripe. Too much so? Almost bloody with fine polished tannins. A little gamey.

From a parcel within one of the top vineyards in Moulin-à-Vent, this wine has weight and spiciness from the wood aging. Its tannins, still young, give both structure and emphasize the richness of the fruit. It provides a fine example of the aging ability of great Beaujolais and will probably not be ready until 2020.

This vineyard is at the bottom of the hill, in deep, clay-rich soils. When Patricio Tapia, our critic for Spain, tasted this wine, the bloody, earthy, flowery Beaujolais led him to remark, “Sometimes I get confused between mencía and gamay.” And this does have surprising intensity for a gamay, concentrated in its black-skinned blueberry flavors and bitter jasmine florals. It needs cellar time to rest and relax.

The 2015 Moulin A Vent Champs de Cour comes from granitic soils and is 35% aged in oak using the same percentage of new wood over 12 months. It offers lovely brambly red berry fruit on the nose, crisp and well defined with hints of rose petal. The palate is well balanced with supple, ripe tannin, well judged acidity and neatly integrated oak. There is just a hint of salted licorice that lends complexity to the finish. I love the mouthfeel here, with a touch of graininess towards the finish that lingers long in the mouth.

Deep ruby. Explosive, oak-spice- and mineral-accented aromas of red and dark berry liqueur, incense and vanilla pick up cola and earthy rhubarb notes with aeration. Sweet and deeply concentrated but almost shockingly lively and focused on the palate, offering intense raspberry preserve, cherry cola, spicecake and floral pastille flavors and a bracing jolt of minerality on the back half. Finishes smooth, sweet and extremely long, with resonating floral and spice notes and velvety tannins that come in slowly to add shape and gentle grip.

Revealing notes of sweet berry fruit, espresso roast, smoke, candied peel and plums, framed by a touch of oak spice and vanillin, the 2017 Moulin-à-Vent is medium to full-bodied, fleshy and layered, with a fine but firm chassis of tannin and a delicately wood-inflected finish. This is an elegant middleweight from the Château de Moulin-à-Vent that should come into its own after a year or two in the cellar.