A selection of the best nine barrels of the vintage, the 2016 Pinot Noir Nine Barrels was aged 15 months in 58% new oak. It has a medium ruby color with aromas of spiced cranberry jelly, black cherry jam, shaved nutmeg and cinnamon stick with touches of pencil shavings, leather and smoked meats. Medium-bodied, silky, and intensely flavored, it offers loads of ripe fruits and savory accents. It has a firmer frame of grainy tannins and seamlessly woven freshness, finishing long and dense. This is a powerful Pinot Noir that's drinking beautifully now but will reward a couple more years of bottle age. 210 cases were made.

Medium ruby-purple colored, the 2015 Pinot Noir Nine Barrels opens with a powerhouse of a nose, delivering intense black cherries, black berries, mulberries, chocolate box and lilacs scents with touches of dusty soil, Chinese five spice and black tea. Medium to full-bodied, firm and fine-grained, it completely coats the mouth with spicy layers, finishing very long and perfumed. 212 cases produced.

The top selection, the 2013 Pinot Noir Nine Barrel was okay, but not nearly as good as the least expensive Pinot wine in the tasting. So much for price being related to quality in the Pinot Noir portfolio.

The nine-barrel selection 2012 Pinot Noir Nine Barrel finishes off the Dijon clones. It shows beet root, mulch, some herbaceousness, along with plum, black cherry and wild strawberry notes. If these wines can be criticized in any way, they’re probably not singularly different from cuvée to cuvée, but they’re all very attractive, fruit-forward, well-crafted wines.

The 2011 Pinot Noir Nine Barrel comes from the Dijon clone 777, the French Pommard clone, and the Heritage California clone Martini. The wine displays fresh strawberry jam notes intermixed with sassafras, root vegetables and a forest floor/earthy component. Medium-bodied, spicy and evolved, it is best drunk over the next several years. The stunning quartet of Chardonnays includes three 2012s and a late-released 2011. The winemaker is Elizabeth Grant-Douglas, who also produces the wines at several other Jackson Family estates, especially their high-end, small-production wines. Tel. (800) 314-1762