The only real answer to this is to say that you should always drink wines that give you the most pleasure; weather they come from California or France. We always have to remember that wine is a subjective form of art, and like all art, very personal. That being said the wines are very different, especially when it comes to young wine of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The always warm California weather produces wine that is always ripe and lush with soft tannins and low in natural acidity that makes a great tasting wine from the beginning of its life. The great French wines are almost the opposite when young; high in natural acidity with firm tannins that hide the core of tight young fruit. Many of these wines will develop into great tasting drinks with aging time in proper storage conditions.

California and Australia have plenty in common. Very warm weather with coastal influence, large and diverse wine growing regions and microclimates. Both regions have great history; California arrived as a major player on the world stage to stay 20-25 years before Australia with more famous wines of greatness to offer. Today's World Wide Wine Boom is now lead by these two great areas. Australia has learned a great deal by the success and development of the California wine industry and has followed in its footsteps.

The very best of Today's California cult wines are represented in the selection here at PrimeCellar. These micro-production wines like Harlan and Screaming Eagle have taken over from names like "Insignia" and "Opus" as the darlings of cult wines from the 1980's. The landscape of California wineries is always changing and the newest cult wines are growing somewhere right now waiting to be discovered and we will always be trying to find them for you.

At PrimeCellar we have quite daunting selection to make with 1200 wineries in California and almost half of them in the Northern California regions on Napa and Sonoma. Every wine we select to be featured at PrimeCeller absolutely captures not only the essence of California wine at it's core, but wine made at the pinnacle of small production, highest quality and most intriguing. The best of the best...as of today!

Unlike many of the French wines; California wines need less decanting for aeration as they are much riper, forward, and softer wines, a half an hour to an hour at room temperature for young wine is just fine. For an older wine less time is needed for aeration but may be much more important for the separation of sediment in the old wine.