Wine Spectator: Frankly woodsy in style, offering lots of roasted apple wood and toasted bread notes, backed by dense, slightly chewy-textured plum skin, blackberry compote and black currant ...

Wine Spectator: Gorgeous aromas of crushed berries, cigar box, black licorice and tanned leather. Full-bodied, with fine silky tannins and a medium to long finish. Seems a little tight right ...

Wine Spectator: Very ripe and flattering, with loads of linzer torte, cassis and crushed cherry fruit, but well-supported by notes of cocoa, graphite and toasty spice. The finish is long and ...

Wine Spectator: Firm and austere. It offers full, slightly dry tannins, with cherry, licorice and light herbal flavors. Needs time to soften; best after 2002.

Wine Spectator: Massive and concentrated, if a bit angular and tightly wound, with chewy, chunky leather, pencil lead, currant and herbal flavors that are framed by rugged tannins. Needs time...

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: Of all the extraordinary wines emanating from California in recent years, one of the most remarkable achievements must be the...

Wine Spectator: Surprisingly elegant, with lovely tobacco, cherry and berry aromas that blossom on the palate. Moderately soft tannins and a sweet, fruity finish. All finesse...

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: (81% cabernet sauvignon, 10% cabernet franc, and 9% merlot; pH 3.69; IPT 60; 12.2% alcohol; 76% new oak; a 79% selection): Bright red with a pale rim. Knockout nose of aroma...

About this Wine: Silver Oak's Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is drawn predominantly from their three Alexander Valley estate vineyards and reflects a blend of their characteristics. T...

About this Wine: French for "joy", La Joie emphasizes Cabernet Sauvignon and represents a Pauillac-style wine. The wine is deep purple in color, spicy and intense in the nose, with density...

Wine Spectator: Shows high-toned cherry, tobacco leaf, grilled herb and lightly mulled spice notes. Very formed already, with a lingering dusty finish as the herb note peeks out more and more...

About this Wine: This wine will require 7-10 years of cellaring, then last for two decades thereafter.

About this Wine: Saint-Pierre has 17 hectares of vineyards and the wine is a blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc. It is aged in oak barrels (50% new) for 18 mont...

Wine Spectator: Dense, deep and powerful, a many-layered red that piles on its rich currant, plum, black cherry and peppery spice flavors, finishing with touches of cedar and mint. A glorious...

Wine Spectator: A polished, seductive style, offering rich black cherry and blackberry fruit that's ripe and well-defined, with an overlay of smoky, toasty oak, folding together nicely on the...

Wine Spectator: Impressive. Beautiful plum, berry, tobacco, cedar and toasted oak aromas and flavors, medium body and tannins and a succulent finish. Drinkable now.

Stephen Tanzer's IWC: Bright ruby. Smoky, floral-accented aromas of redcurrant, cherry pit and plum, with a peppery topnote. Sweet and open-knit, offering musky red fruit and floral pastille flav...

About this Wine: " Lynch-Bages made primarily from Cabernet-Sauvignon, is famous for its fine bouquet and rich tannin, which becomes soft and delicious with age. Lynch-Bages is powerful with a...

Wine Spectator: A dark, saturated, mouthcoating wine that's fairly muscular, loaded with plush smoky currant, herb, coffee, plum, hazelnut, mocha and mineral. Finishes with a potent gush of f...

About this Wine: As I have written many times, all of these wines are produced from rigidly cultivated, bio-dynamically managed vineyards. That has been the rule since Michel Chapoutier fi...