The Bond wines sit side-by-side with Bill Harlan’s lofty ambition to create a Napa Valley first-growth at Harlan Estate. Bond is an exploration of the diversity of the very best of Napa terroir, as expressed through Cabernet Sauvignon. The name Bond evokes the long-term alliance between the owners, growers and winemakers who have combined to made it possible. Vecina comes from east-facing terraces that get the full morning sun and a bracing dose of San Pablo Bay wind. On the other side of the valley, St Eden is from iron-rich volcanic soils, and tends towards the more opulent and exotic.

Between LA and San Francisco, Santa Barbara County may not yet be as well known in wine terms as Napa or Sonoma, but it is an area very fast on the rise. It is already home to some extremely distinguished vineyards and wineries. It’s a diverse place, too; the eastern inland reaches are hotter and are most known for Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, while the west excels at cool climate, ocean-influenced Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Site selection, low yields, native yeasts, grapes grown from well-established vines on east-facing volcanic hillsides - Cristom gets everything right. From beginnings thirty years ago in a derelict barn in the Eola-Amity hills, this has become one of Oregon`s premier wineries, producing top-flight Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. It was the vision of Paul Gerrie, an engineer brave enough to throw over the day job to pursue a love of Pinot Noir.

From his cellar in Healdsburg, David Ramey sources fruit from some of the best vineyards up and down Napa and the Sonoma Coast. He spent sixteen years making wine in California before founding Ramey Wine Cellars; he`d been involved with a variety of prestigious estates, but it was during his stint at Dominus when owner Christian Moueix allowed him to make `a little Chardonnay on the side`. That was in 1996. By 2001 he had quit the day job and was dedicated full-time to Ramey Wine Cellars. Fast forward a bit more.

Founded in 2010 by Nicholas Maloney while he was in France, working in in Haute Savoie, Margaux, Nuits-Saint-Georges, Savigny-les-Beaune, Pernand Vergelesses and Chablis. His experiences in France and Switzerland influenced his philosophy of creating delicate, expressive wines.

Founded in 2001, Freeman Winery is the fruition of Ken and Akiko Freeman`s longstanding belief that California can produce Pinot Noir every bit as complex, age-worthy and eloquent as Burgundy`s best. Ken and Akiko visited 300 potential vineyard sites before settling on the redwood-ringed hillside estate they now occupy, just outside Sebastopol. They source fruit from some of the area’s best growers, from cool hillside sites in the Russian River Valley and remoter, rugged spots on Sonoma Coast.

It`s still early days for Bill Harlan’s lofty, 200-year vision of a Californian First Growth. But since its first vintages, Harlan Estate has established itself among the very acme of world wines. On an exceptionally diverse set of soils (part sedimentary, part volcanic, all with thin topsoil and entirely exposed) in the western hills of Oakville, Harlan’s vines have been forced to burrow deep into the bedrock to survive.

When Joe Rochioli Jr. was growing up on the family farm in the 1940s, he had to travel to the one-room schoolhouse by horse, since there weren`t enough cars or roads in the area. Times have changed in the Russian River Valley town of Healdsburg. Among other crops, Joe`s family farm grew grapes, which his family sold to local wineries. Joe formed his own ideas about what would grow well, and in the 1960s, he took the risky decision of planting the little-known grape variety of Pinot Noir. He soon followed with some Chardonnay. Their grapes were popular.

The bottle shows the Janus-faced profile of the two founders. Opus One was created as a joint venture between two giants of the world wine scene. One was Baron Phillippe de Rothschild of Mouton-Rothschild, the other was Robert Mondavi, but both were internationally-known ambassadors for their respective home regions of Bordeaux and Napa. They first met in 1970, and within a few years moves were afoot to make a great Napa Bordeaux blend with the fusion of Bordelais expertise and top Napa terroir.

The history of Pulenta goes back to the arrival in 1902 of the splendid looking Angelo and Palmina from Ancona in Italy and this year the fifth Argentinian generation was born. Ten years ago saw the birth of the company in its present form, with many of the lesser vineyards sold off and the company - always excellent growers - now concentrating on producing their superb estate wines of different levels. They have two main vineyard sites about an hour, and slightly higher than Mendoza.

Ridge is one of the defining names in American wine. High in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Monte Bello Ridge was first terraced for winemaking in the nineteenth century. It was later abandoned, recovered in the 1940s by a group of amateurs, then famously developed from 1969 by Paul Draper. Draper unlocked the real potential of this extraordinary site, and under his tenure, Ridge Monte Bello was one of the wines on the winning team at the 1976 Judgement of Paris.

There can’t be many family-owned wineries left in Napa, but three generations of Snowdens have been making wine in the hills east of Rutherford since they moved here in 1955. Their vineyards are even older; premium grapes have been harvested here since the ranch was homesteaded in 1878, during the Gold Rush. When the Snowdens took over, they wisely switched the Petit Sirah and Palomino over to Cabernet Sauvignon.

Larry Turley is a man with a mission. He started off in the 1970s as the co-founder of Frog`s Leap Winery, making Cabernets and Chardonnays. But over time he came to understand his interests lay elsewhere. By the early 1990s, when Cabernet was king in California, Larry had realised that one of the state`s great viticultural treasures was in danger of being lost; old vine Zinfandel plantings, often predating prohibiton, sometimes on original, ungrafted rootstock.