Let’s hear it for a California winery that makes a Cabernet with a moderate 13.5% alcohol level! It’s all here: the layers of flavor, the big mouthfeel, the tidal wave of Cab aromas. Spice, chocolate, vanilla.

The winemakers get their grapes from the Central Coast and Sonoma County. The warmer Central Coast fruit gives you the lush fruit flavors, and Sonoma adds that Cabernet structure.

We found blueberry, black currant, herbal spices and a sequence of chocolate flavors.

Dancing Bull winemakers like their white wines “racy,” and here’s a Chardonnay that proves the point. They get their fruit from Monterey County, just inside the Coastal Range from the ocean, and the cool climate shines through in the wine. A little Sauvignon Blanc in the blend sharpens it up, too.

Good balance and structure, with bright fruit tending toward citrus and apple. Notice the nice round note of tropical fruits. Put it alongside some good Mexican food.

Here’s more proof that you can have a big, lush, ripe wine without an over-the-top alcohol level. At 13.5% alcohol, this is a wine you can stick with during dinner. Here’s living proof that Merlot deserves its place as America’s favorite red wine.

Merlot lovers will be right at home with the ripe flavors of dark fruit, blackberry and black cherry, with a bit of spice and a velvety finish that really zings.

This is “easy to enjoy” personified. A very, very likeable wine. All steel, no oak, moderate alcohol, great acidity, tons of absolutely luscious fruit aromas and flavors. The style leans slightly toward the New Zealand model, with a light touch of herbaceous grassiness. And the broader California sunshine effect really brings out the fruit.

You’ll get grapefruit and lime, some tropical guava and mango. This wine vibrates with flavor.

The fruit is the star of this California Zin, much of it coming from the Lodi appellation. Lodi has a great reputation for Zin. The vineyards enjoy abundant sun, as well as the cooling breezes from the north end of San Francisco Bay, where the land rises to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

The fruit flavors include all the Zin classics: blueberry, blackberry, black cherry. Also typical of good Zin: black pepper and vanilla spice. Nice, soft tannins.