Specials

96 Points! The 2023 Gemellaia, a varietal Merlot in this vintage, is dusty and floral, enticing with an array of crushed violets, white pepper, cedar shavings and wild blueberries. It is seamless and supple, with a savory mix of red and blue fruits underscored by crisp mineral tones, as an air of lavender gathers toward the close. It is dramatically long, staining and structured, with a web of fine tannins, yet maintains excellent freshness and verve. The 2023 Gemellaia is simply stunning. No fan of Merlot should be without it. – Eric Guido, Vinous

96 Points! A fresh and perfumed wine with aromas of sandstone, roses and lavender. Silky tannins and refreshing acidity with a long finish that carries flavors of wild blueberry, raspberry and pomegranate. – JamesSuckling.com

95+ Points! A dramatic departure from the history of this wine, the 2023 Gemellaia is composed of 100% Merlot and is an absolutely transcendent expression of the variety. Bounding from the glass with a sophisticated, red- and black-fruited nose with sandalwood, turned earth, underbrush and dark chocolate aromas, the palate is rich and saturated yet equal parts slender and spry. It culminates with a lifted, savory finish that lingers with refined, chalky tannins and remarkable length. This is the only thing like it in the Central Coast, and I look forward to following its evolution. – Matthew Luczy, robertparker.com

95 Points! The 2021 Pinot Noir Radius is a gorgeous wine from a favorable growing season. Velvety berry fruit and elegant structure are the orders of the day. Supple and focused, it is supremely clear and precise, with beautiful curves. Tea leaves, blood orange, and sweet black cherry flesh out, expanding like a peacock's tail on the epically long finish. What a beautiful wine. - Billy Norris, Vinous

95 Points! From a vineyard with old vines and schistic galestro soils, the 2019 Brunello di Montalcino Poggiarelli opens to a deep and unique sense of aromatic layering, starting with dark fruit, sweet tobacco leaf, flavored cigarette and spice. The wine is rich with dense fruit flavors and ripe tannins. You taste Sangiovese's skins with a hint of bitterness. However, the truly distinguishing factor of Poggiarelli is the etched mineral notes. - Monica Larner, robertparker.com

95 Points! Magnificent black cherry, tea leaf, cocoa and violet perfume. Elegant, round and silky on the palate, with ripe polished tannins, amazing structure and nicely-integrated oak. Fruit-driven and persistent finish. - Decanter World Wine Awards

95 Points! The 2023 Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hill is a jeweled ruby red color and is ripe with notes of black cherry cordial, dark stones, pressed violets, and gravelly earth. Medium to full-bodied, it saturates the palate with ripe tannins, refreshing ripe acidity, and a long finish. Wow, this is a tremendous amount of wine for the price. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

93 Points! Handsomely structured and showing simmering intensity framed by dark raspberry and blueberry flavors, with dusky spice and fresh forest floor accents. Finishes with medium-grained tannins. - Wine Spectator

96 Points! Very focused, pure and well balanced, showing great poise and freshness for a full-bodied Napa red. This cabernet sauvignon-dominant blend is bold and packed with dark fruit, toasted oak and dark spices. Black cherries, dried blueberries, blackberries, black pepper and chocolate mint. Well concentrated and delicious. Drink now or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! One of the valley's great, great values, the 2022 The Bard is based on 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 4% Franc, and the rest a mix of varieties. It has a killer nose of bright red and blue fruits intermixed with spring flowers, graphite, baking spices, and incense. This carries to a beautifully balanced, full-bodied red that has a lively, elegant mouthfeel and fine tannins. It competes with wines at 2-3 times its going rate, especially in a vintage like 2022. - Jeb Dunnuck

93+ Points! Scents of pine resin and hints of mint accent black cherry and cassis notes on the nose of Ink Grade's 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain. It's a sturdy, wiry effort, with the ample tannins and coiled intensity that often mark mountain wines, followed by a lingering, gently astringent finish. Like the other reds from Ink Grade, it spent time in a combination of oak tanks and barrels, yet the wood is scarcely noticeable. Give it a few years to unwind. - Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com

95 Points! Very beautiful aromas of blackcurrants, violets, and lavender with hints of sandalwood. Medium to full body. Chewy mountain tannins, but they are so well integrated and polished that they melt into the wine. Hints of dried cocoa powder at the end with some cedar. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! This is a step up, with lushly textured flavors of crushed plum, currant preserves and mulled black cherry driving along nicely, underscored by licorice, black tea and warm earth. Even with the earthy flash, this stays refined and focused, with latent energy on the finish as well. No rush here, either. Drink now through 2040. - Wine Spectator, 2023

95 Points! The 2022 Chardonnay Peake Ranch Vineyard offers a touch more complexity, offering ripe citrus and orchard fruits, spice, tropical flowers, and green almond notes in a medium-bodied, pure, focused, balanced package. It has the fruit and suppleness of the vintage yet brings good acidity and a focused, elegant mouthfeel. I love it today, yet it has the balance and vibrancy to evolve nicely for 5-7 years, if not longer. - Jeb Dunnuck

#Peake_Ranch

95 Points! Last of the Chardonnays, the 2022 Chardonnay John Sebastiano Vineyard comes from a great vineyard on the eastern side of the appellation and was brought up in 28% new French oak. Ripe melon, salted citrus, crushed stone, and white flowers all define the aromatics, and this beauty hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a pure, focused, chiseled mouthfeel, integrated acidity, and a great finish. It’s California's answer to a great Chablis! Drink bottles over the coming 7-8 years. - Jeb Dunnuck

#Peake_Ranch

95 Points! Bright and minerally, with white stone fruit character and hints of lemon rind, chamomile, subtle spices and crushed stones. Pure and refined, with a medium body and a seamless, lingering, silky feel. Delicate and focused, with plenty of freshness that shows citrus blossom and white almond undertones. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

94 Points! A precise and dynamic white, with compelling lemon and apricot flavors highlighted by crushed stone and zesty spice tones that sail on the finish. Drink now through 2027. - Wine Spectator

94 Points! Rich mulberry and raspberry fruit mingle with toasty cedarwood. Medium-bodied with a firm bed of fine-grained tannins, it delivers crunchy red fruits layered with savoury cardamom and coriander accents. As it evolves, more savoury notes of pine forest emerge, complemented by vanilla-laced cherry wood. The supple fruit is beautifully balanced by a well-integrated framework of acid tension, lending freshness and structure. - Decanter Magazine

94 Points! So full-bodied, broad and ripe-tasting. It gives a mouthful of indulgent fruit flavors on an agreeable texture. Moderate to full tannins lift dark plum, dried cherry, subtle vanilla bean and cocoa accents. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! 2021 is the first vintage Jean Hoefliger started working with Conn Creek as a consultant. The 2021 Anthology (75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot, and 5% Merlot) displays a deep garnet-purple color, offering a wonderfully savory nose of black olives and beef drippings, giving way to a core of red currant jelly, black raspberries, and fresh plums. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers intense, muscular red and black fruit layers with a firm, grainy texture and just enough freshness, finishing long and minerally. Nice! - Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW

94 Points! The blend consists of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon from select sites in Napa Valley, 15% Cabernet Franc from Spring Mountain, 5% Merlot from St. Helena, and 5% Petit Verdot from Atlas Peak. It has a vibrant dark berry fruit character with loamy earth, green tobacco, plenty of lush fruit on the back end, and gentle yet firm tannins. The finish is distinctly black-fruited and laced with graphite. Founded in 1973, Conn Creek Winery is situated on the eastern side of Napa Valley, just off the Silverado Trail. With Jean Hoefliger as a consultant winemaker, there is a new emphasis on elegance and refinement. - Decanter Magazine

95 Points! Slight hints of wax, earth and lemon show on the still-shy nose. The palate is equally reticent, tightly coiled but speaking of concentrated citrus freshness that verges into zestiness. The bone-dry nature makes it hard to sense ripe citrus slumbering at the core but the fruit will reveal itself with bottle age. Concentration, purity and power promise a future firework, discernible now in the tangerine zestiness on the finish. - Wine Enthusiast

95 Points! A selection of the best lots from the winery's Oakville estate, aged in 100% new oak, Groth's 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is a great wine at a realistic—for Napa Valley—price. Textbook notes of cedar and vanilla gently cosset black cherries and hints of dried herbs. It's full-bodied, creamy and lush in texture, showing more concentration, tannin and length than the winery's regular Oakville Cabernet. - Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com

95 Points! Ripe and with a bit of flash thanks to its glossy toast, this red delivers a violet-accented core of cassis and plum reduction, with black licorice, sweet tobacco and singed alder notes. Solid and steady through the lengthy, polished finish, with a hint of flinty minerality lurking in the background. Drink now through 2040. - Wine Spectator

95 Points! The 2021 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, with 2% Merlot in the blend, is deep garnet-purple in color. Scents of creme de cassis, plum preserves, and boysenberry slowly emerge from the glass, revealing underlying hints of tar, rose oil, and cast-iron pan. The full-bodied palate is laden with expressive black fruit preserves flavors with earthy accents and a firm frame of ripe, grainy tannins, finishing long and fragrant. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW

95 Points! The cool climate of the vineyard really shines bright in the light-bodied, nuanced 2023 Chardonnay Escolle Vineyard, which offers lengthy, crisp, and subtle characteristics of gravel, green apple, and a hint of citrus and spice. Structured to age another 10 years, it captures the power and intensity of the appellation from a perspective of equal finesse. - Virginie Boone, jebdunnuck.com

95 Points! The 2020 Châteauneuf Du Pape La Côte Ronde is an even split of Grenache and Syrah, and as usual, was brought up all in new oak. It has an awesome nose of cassis, blackberries, graphite, ground pepper, and violets, with its new oak perfectly integrated into the wine. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it has impressive tannins, terrific overall balance, and a great finish. This brilliant effort will keep for 10-15 years. - Jeb Dunnuck

95 Points! The 2021 Chardonnay Sta. Rita Hills offers a richer, nicely oaked profile that includes honeyed stone fruits, toasted spice, crushed stone, and salted citrus-like nuances. It's rich, medium to full-bodied, and has a concentrated, mouth-filling profile that's grounded by a beautiful spine of vibrant acidity. It benefits from air, and this is another awesome Chardonnay from this team that readers will absolutely love. - Jeb Dunnuck

95 Points! The 2019 Savitar Shiraz was my pick of the bunch. This is serious, precise and driven and, again, sourced from Whites Valley, as is the 2019 GAM Shiraz. The maturation rolls out in 100% French oak. The extract here is savory and firm; the fruit is driven by tannins, and they really screw down the fruit and compress it in the glass. It’s tight. One can see that the longevity of this wine may outweigh that of the others, making it quite a layered and exciting wine to drink—certainly now, but in the future too. - Erin Larkin, robertparker.com

94 Points! Classically dense and modern, the 2019 Savitar is a massive crowd-pleaser that will knock your socks off. There is immense colour - it's almost black as the ace of spades. The nose is hit with wave after wave of dark fruits, liquorice, blackberry, chocolate and spice. It's big but balanced; luscious flavours and sweet oak provide a long, supple finish. An excellent vintage of Savitar. - Angus Hughson, Vinous Media

95 Points! It’s really hard to believe that this is a 2020, such is the youthful energy of this extraordinary wine. I love the intense lemon blossom aroma in the nose. Concentrated, creamy and very elegant, this high-end Savennieres isn’t difficult to understand. Less fundamentally mineral than the very best, but still plenty of wet stone at the long silky finish. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold.- JamesSuckling.com