California

• Amador County
  • Shenandoah Valley
• Carmel Valley
• Carneros
• Central Coast
  • Edna Valley
  • Mt. Harlan
  • Paso Robles
• Contra Costa County
• El Dorado County
• Lake County
• Lodi
• Mendocino
  • Anderson Valley
  • Yorkville Highlands
• Monterey
• Napa Valley
  • Atlas Peak
  • Best of Napa
  • Calistoga
  • Conn Valley
  • Diamond Mountain
  • Howell Mountain
  • Mt. Veeder
  • Oak Knoll
  • Oakville
  • Pope Valley
  • Rutherford
  • Spring Mountain
  • St. Helena
  • Stags Leap
  • Yountville
• North Coast
• Santa Barbara
  • Santa Lucia Highlands
  • Santa Rita Hills
  • Santa Ynez Valley
• Santa Cruz
• Santa Maria Valley
• Sierra Foothills
• Sonoma County
  • Alexander Valley
  • Bennett Valley
  • Best of Sonoma
  • Dry Creek Valley
  • Fort Ross/Seaview
  • Moon Mountain
  • Pine Mountain - Cloverdale Peak
  • Russian River Valley
  • Sonoma Coast
  • Sonoma Mountain
  • Sonoma Valley
  • Knights Valley

Another classic Chardonnay from this producer.  Santa Cruz is south of San Francisco.  Light golden in color, clear and bright.  The nose is great with lemons, slight vanilla and spice.  Crisp texture.  Great acidity.  This is just starting to open and has a long life left.  Lemons and green apples with some underlying spice.  Long finish.  Drink over the next ten years.  

My first time trying this.  It seems to be associated with Ghost Block wines.  This is a blend of 56% Malbec and 44% Petite Verdot.  Inky purple in color, mostly opaque and bright.  The nose has plums, cedar, clay and spice.  Full bodied.  Light tannins.  On the palate, plums with a bit of black raspberries.  More one dimensional with out a lot going on.  It drinks very easy.  Nice on its own, this would be a nice mid week burger wine.  drink over the next five years.  

Always a great night when drinking this wine.  Purple in color, mostly opaque and bright.  The nose is classic with cassis, sandalwood, slight cedar, baking spices, and slight char.  Full bodied.  Tannins are mostly integrated but a few remain.  The texture is beautiful.  Almost seamless.  great balance.  On the palate, this is delicious.  Mature but plenty of life left.  Notes of cassis, plums with underlying char.  Long finish.  Complex, it unwinds in the glass.  This is wonderful on its own, and will work well with bigger foods.  It would work well with roasted chicken or duck.  At age 1

This is a blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot, 1% Malbec.  Deep garnet in color, mostly opaque and bright.  The nose is lovely with cassis, cedar, black cherries, slight dried tobacco, spice and an interesting menthol note.  Full bodied.  Firm tannins.  On the palate, this is delicious.  Cassis, black cherries, spices and graphite.  Lovely texture.  Long finish.  This is young but drinking well.  It is great on its own and would work well with roasted meats and/or root vegetables.  It will still improve.  Drink over the next twenty years.  

Tasted on the Celebrity Millennium  Cruise ship off the coast of Alaska.  It is 100% Syrah.  Purple in color, mostly opaque and bright.  The nose is earthy with black raspberries, char and black pepper.  Full bodied.  Medium tannins.  On the palate, black raspberries with underlying char.  A bitter note on the finish.  This is drinking well on its own and would work with big meat dishes.  Drink over the next seven to ten years.  

This is a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc.  It is a beautiful wine.  Purple in color, opaque and bright.  The nose is lovely with cassis, slight black cherries, cedar and char.  Full bodied.  Firm tannins.  On the palate, young, firm and deep.  This needs time to open but still provides a lot now.  Cassis, and cedar with underlying char.  Long finish.  This is great on its own and would work with a steak right now.  Still, cellar for five years then drink for fifteen after that.  

This is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon made with organic grapes in Mendocino, California.  Purple in color, mostly opaque and bright.  The nose is classic with cassis, dust and graphite.  Firm tannins.  Full bodied.  Good acidity.  If you are looking for a big fruit bomb California Cab, this is not it.  It is ripe with no green notes, but it is more of a classic, food friendly style.  Cassis with slight graphite notes with an underlying earthiness.  Nice finish.  This drinks well on its own but is better with food.  Of course a steak, but this would work really nicely with Roasted Root vegetables.

This is a proprietary blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot from Mendocino, California.  The wine is made from organic grapes.  Purple in color, mostly opaque and bright.  The nose has black raspberries, plums, black cherries, and slight spice.

This is a first and foremost, a very nice Merlot.  But before talking about that it is worth noting that this wine is made without added sulfites.  They accomplish this by using the Purovino® method.  From the company's web site:  "The purovino® method is based on controlled hyperoxygenation on wine grapes and a CIP process of all the equipment with ozone-enriched water.  After the harvest, grapes are fumigated with a specific concentration of activated oxygen that induces  a controlled oxidative stress.

Offering a lighter style of Cabernet, this 2019 Dough is definitely a solid value. Black cherry, blueberry, blackberry, light plum, pomegranate, rhubarb, green tea leaf and black cherry, announce themselves and it offers moderate acidity and decent tannins. The wine was aged 16 months in both American and French oak barrels.