Had the pleasure of being invited to The 2006 Wine Steward Holiday Party in Pleasanton Wednesday night. As always, Jim, Kent, et. al. does a wonderful job. Fourteen of their best distributors were on had to pour some of the good juice! It's impossible to try all the selections so my Father and I focused on a couple of choices and here were the ones we enjoyed:

2003 Honig Cabernet---always good, highly recommended with a nice price: $33.00.
2003 Honig "Bartolucci" Cab----$73.00 a bottle. Excellent!

2004 Duckhorn Napa Merlot---$49.99 a bottle. One of the best producers of Merlot.
2003 Duckhorn Estate Cab----$89.99 a bottle. Yep...we liked it...a lot!

Kermit Lynch: Bruno Colin Chassagne-Montrachet----$53.99 a bottle. Ahhhh...wow! Very limited but worth the effort. Only 56 cases made? The Distributor said it was one his favs.
2004 Vieux Telegraphe CDP----$51.99 a bottle. Incredible and always a winner. Never had it? Why are you waiting? Go get a bottle. One of my all-time favorites. Decant...sit back and watch it evolve. Probably best to wait this one out a few years but hard to resist now.

2002 Etude "St. Helena" Cabernet----$99.99 a bottle. Is it expensive? Yes! Was it our favorite taste of the night? Yes! Simply put: suburb! It's got it all. Wonderful!

Word of mouth which we didn't try but know and heard are good:

2002 Talbott Diamond T Chardonnay----$55.99 (two people said you got to try this Chard.)2002 Ch. St. Jean Cinq Cepages----$58.99 (have tried it in the past but not this vintage)
2005 Frank Family Chardonnay---$31.99 (consistently good with high accolades)
2003 Corison Cabernet----$61.99. (Never had a bad one...always good)
2003 Ojai "Melville" Syrah----$45.99 (have read and heard it's a knockout)