I tasted three other wines from Sterling Vineyards, all impossible to recommend, and these two are marginal recommendations. Both of these wines are pleasant, correct, and above average in quality, but they lack the dimensions, flavor, complexity, and intensity that one expects from such a famous name. Unlike the Sterling Reserves from such vintages as 1973 and 1974, which are still going strong at over 35 years of age, these wines have little more than 10 years of life in them. Along with Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Sterling Vineyards may be the most conspicuous underachiever in Napa Valley. This great vineyard, which made such sensational wines in the late 1960s and the decade of the 1970s, when visionary and pioneer Ric Forman was the winemaker, continues to turn out blatantly commercial, standard fare – lean, austere, and terribly uninteresting. They can certainly do a lot better than this. www.sterlingvineyards.com

A big, tannic and dry wine that’s nowhere near ready to drink now. Feels tight and astringent, and the new oak sticks like a sore thumb. But there’s a solid core of black currants, indicating a good future. Don’t touch it before 2011, and it should develop through 2014, at least, with proper cellaring.——S.H.(12/15/2009)—— 92