Reviews

A velvety, seamless texture and subtly layered fruit, spice and cream flavors make this rich and full-bodied wine practically irresistible. Generous red and black cherries, dark plums, light vanilla and nutmeg accents fill out the expansive frame of this luxurious wine. Best–2030

Rich, lush and mouth filling, this deceptively full-bodied blend of mostly Merlot and Petite Sirah shows a soft touch on the palate, oozing milk chocolate, mocha and cooked cherry flavors on a soft frame of melted tannins. - Jim Gordon

Classic fruit flavors shine through in this well-structured, well-balanced, not-overly oaky or sweet-tasting wine. Hints of black olive and rosemary dress up the core of black cherries and blackberries while moderate tannins add a lip-smacking grip.

Mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2019 Tarot comes from a mix of valley floor sites and was raised in mostly neutral French oak. It's a smoking value and offers lots of sweet red and black fruits, notes of herbes de Provence and spice, medium body, ripe, soft tannins, and outstanding length. It's not going to make terribly old bones, but this beauty will put a smile on your face any time over the coming 7-8 years, if not longer.

Best of Class/Double Gold

Jean-Charles Boisset uses his JCB label as an emotional outlet, working with his team to present lots that trigger a response—like 22, which he selects for “intensity and charm.” In fact, No. 22 pushes more buttons than most. We’ve tasted seven vintages of the wine, and five have earned exceptional ratings. This is one of the best: tight and complex, with notes of tarragon and smoke at the edges and clean fruit at its core. It’s a gentle, elegant, savory pinot, expanding from herbal and crunchy hints of rose-hip greenness to fragrant, fresh cherry flavors that last. 

Bright cherry, tart strawberry and rhubarb notes form the center of this wine, all edged in mineral tannins. The flavors are light and transparent, their delicacy and finesse lasting, along with a heavier note of extract that may merge into the wine with a year in bottle. 

Here’s a wine for those who like a little sea wrack in their pinot noir; this one has oceanic persistence and sweet, high-toned strawberry fruit. You could think of the green herb scents as nori, to complement nigiri sushi.

A blend from several vineyards, this includes some pinot meunier in a wine that’s bristling with floral fruit, one that continues to gain freshness over the course of several days. The blueberry and thyme flavors have clarity, perfumed with alcohol, needing age to integrate completely.

This wine’s rich, cherry crush of fruit is in the youthful grip of its tea-like tannins, lasting in notes of cherry skins and the peppery warmth of oak. There’s complexity in the tannins, in scents of tree bark and leaves, and in their grand texture. A steakhouse pour, this will benefit from a year in the cellar. — Reviewed by Joshua Greene