The Home Glass

During my years of writing a newspaper column about bargain wines, Ironstone Winery got a lot of ink—in large part because they often source grapes from Lodi and sell several wines for $10 or less a bottle. Now that I have a reason to write about higher-end wines, I thought—a little wistfully—that my days of reviewing Ironstone were behind me. Not so: I recently received samples of several of their reserve wines, mostly made with grapes from the Sierra Foothills and priced above $25 a bottle.

My favorite of these was the 2006 Ironstone Reserve Meritage ($45), a blend of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon (80 percent ), un peu Petite Verdot (10 percent) and five percent each Cabernet Franc and Malbec. With strong notes of cedar, vanilla, and menthol, it was a deeply satisfying sipper—and would make a great beach-bonfire red.