Ripe and concentrated on the nose, smells full. Gorgeous texture and overall impression in the mouth. I love the sticky liquorice aspect to the black cherries, blackcurrants and plum fruit, it's not spicy so much as in piquant but the hints of cinnamon and tobacco leaf give that added complexity and edge to the concentrated fruit. It's a bold style, but I like the sweetness and the acidity keeping it lifted. It's a joyful expression, easy to drink. Rich and round but not heavy, there really is nothing not to like here. Amazing for the price! 1% Malbec completes the blend. Ageing 18 months in 48% new oak (58% French, 42% American) and 52% older French and American oak barrels before bottling.

Blackberry and light dried fruit with oyster-shell undertones. It’s full-bodied with round, lightly chewy tannins that nicely accentuate the fruit character. Walnuts and wet earth. Delicious now, but better in two or three years.

This wine is lovely in juicy red fruit, dried herb and hints of allspice, the tannin structure firm and giving. Offering refinement and structure, it shows nuances of black currant, cherry and toasted oak. This will do well in the cellar; enjoy best from 2029–2034. VIRGINIE BOONE

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley) is absolutely gorgeous. Succulent red cherry, red plum, mocha, spice and leather are front and center. Soft contours and silky plush tannins give the 2019 its tremendous immediacy and overall appeal. The 2019 is a superb wine in its peer group. -- Antonio Galloni

2019 was a respite vintage in Napa after a series of droughts and wildfires, and this is a lovely wine. Inky and concentrated, signature Napa in its tar, tapenade, chocolate, powerful dark fruits, muscular tannins. The first vintage to include fruit from the new Joseph Phelps vineyard named El Venadito, located in the Oak Knoll District. Owned by LVMH at time of release, but made under the Phelps family for this vintage. 48% new oak (58% French, 42% American).

Starting with the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, which is a no-brainer cuvée in most vintages, it reveals a dense purple hue to go with classic Napa Cabernet notes of ripe blackcurrants, scorched earth, lead pencil, chalky minerality, and a touch of spice box. Rich, medium to full-bodied, and beautifully balanced, with silky tannins, it's a classic, concentrated, yet elegant style of Cabernet Sauvignon that will deliver the goods for two decades if properly stored. It way over-delivers. The blend is 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Merlot, and the rest Petit Verdot and Malbec, aged 18 months in just under 50% new French and American oak.

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon boasts lovely cigar box-like French oak, with delicate touches of cedar and vanilla accenting black cherries and cassis. Medium to full-bodied, this is ripe and approachable but not soft or flabby. Concentrated and structured, it's a solid "entry-level" Napa Cab, simultaneously juicy and velvety on the finish. It's a blend of multiple vineyards, from Calistoga down nearly to Coombsville. - Joe Czerwinski

Dark, with a flicker of charcoal weaving amid steeped plum, loganberry, black currant and boysenberry fruit flavors. Features flashes of sweet bay leaf and licorice root that underline the briary finish, which has good energy. Best from 2023 through 2034. – JM

Floral cherry and currant flavors burst from this wine’s tannins, which feel chewy, tightening around the fruit with their musky and smoky notes. Give it time for the fruit to fully emerge from the tannins, or coax it out with lamb burgers. —J.G.