Looking for a “no-brainer”, under $30 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon to pour all summer long at the cottage or sip/guzzle (your choice) in the backyard?

So, here's a tale... One hot Napa summer night, Tom and his wife Kerry are chilling at their Calistoga home. As beads of sweat run down her forehead, she turns to Tom and exasperatedly says, "All we have is Cabernet and I'm not drinking Chardonnay!"

Lane talks about the Julia's Vineyard Pinot in terms of Burgundy, oak, late nights in smokey bars and ...

They say all good things must come to an end. And so it is with the wines of Lane Tanner. 2009 was her farewell vintage, which only saw the likes of two markets: Canada through Barrel Select, and her hometown area.

“When a red wine is described as having “freshness,” or as the French would say, frâcheur, it is not to say that the wine must be served cool, is light, or even frivolous. It is often to say that a dichotomy has been discovered. A powerful wine, as is often found from the south of France, from the right terroir, can have the vinous equivalent of a cool breeze on a warm day. A feeling of intrigue, like something more is coming this way, and not all has been revealed.”