After tasting over 500 wines for this report, Napa Valley correspondent Jonathan Cristaldi has well and truly fallen in love with the vintage's Cabernet Sauvignons.
Here are a record 79 wines that received a rating of 98-points and above.
Wines are listed in score order.
| Producer | Region | Vintage | Score | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad Vivum, Sleeping Lady Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Yountville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | An elegant, polished, and seamless Cabernet Sauvignon from longtime Napa Valley winemaker Chris Phelps. It possesses an ethereal quality, an almost weightlessness, but contains multitudes. I tasted it on three separate occasions and one bottle over a three-day period. It was still vibrant and full of life on day three, and that is the mark of a classic. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the Sleeping Lady Vineyard in Yountville, a stone's throw from Dominus. It shows a deep ruby to purple in the glass. It is beautifully fragrant with black cherry, wild herbs, and cedar wood spices nuanced by rose petal florals. Medium to full-bodied with gorgeous, silky fruit redolent of blackberry, plum, and black cherry, all laced with tobacco spices. The tannins are super fine-grained, and a firm spine of juicy acidity keeps everything lively and fresh. The finish is exceedingly long, with a wealth of concentrated fruit that lingers for a full minute. Simply the best vintage of Ad Vivum that Phelps has ever produced. Click to see full details | |
| AXR, AxR1 Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | A blend of Cabernet grapes from several of AXR's single vineyard sources, including Harbsion in Oakville, Artalade on Pritchard Hill, Denali, V Madrone and Sleeping Lady in Yountville. Lifted aromas of pure blackberry and black cherry fruits, graphite, wildflowers and cedar-toasted wild herbs. Full-bodied with superfine-grained tannins that have pixelated quality build and build as the wine gains intensity and volume of fruit and floral flavours. Impressively fresh and layered with black, blue, and red-tone fruits, brown baking spices and elegant pops of cedar and sandalwood. Tremendous energy and vivacity with plenty of years to go. Click to see full details | |
| B Cellars, Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | Sourced from A, B, and D blocks of the Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard in Oakville. Two blocks ferment in stainless steel tanks and one block in barrels. Winemaker Kirk Venge has fashioned a super-perfumed, positively beautiful wine bursting with bright red fruit aromatics, liquorice, cedarwood, and sagebrush. Profound, grippy tannins deeply impact the medium- to full-bodied palate, imbued with fragrant, perfumed florals, lavender, and hints of peach pit. Saline minerals fuel the finish, along with zesty crushed cocoa nib notes. Founded in 2003 by business partners Duffy Keys and Jim Borsack. Kirk Venge began making wine for B Cellars in 2004. Click to see full details | |
| Dominus Estate, Red Wine | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | Superbly aromatic, polished, and balanced. Tannins are plump, pliant, and extremely long, with a beautiful velvety quality. Ripe blackberry, spiced plums, and black cherry fruits are super-expressive and imbued with this spicebush note, which is a shrub bush that grows near the vineyard and, when crushed in the palm of your hand in the thick of summer, reveals a high-toned minty-citrusy note, which is very present on the palate. The minerality is perfectly expressed as iron and stone, and the finish is exceedingly long, nuanced by mocha, loamy earth, and wildflowers, and resolves with tremendous freshness. Just splendid. Click to see full details | |
| Harlan Estate, Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | Harvest began on 22 August and wrapped up three weeks later for Cory Empting and his team at Harlan Estate. Longtime Harlan collectors might notice that the colour of the 2021 is surprisingly light—an almost lucid ruby colour. From it emerges a beautifully pure and precise red with coiled-up energy: gorgeous violet florals, black currants, black cherry, tobacco, and Szechuan pepper aromas. From the wine's medium-bodied palate, pure black currant, black cherry, and spiced plum fruits intermix with pomegranate seed, tobacco and a hint of dark chocolate. Ultrafine, sculpted tannins build on the palate through the saline-scented finish. This wine has a natural brightness and perfumed florals that deliver freshness. Super compact, with immense structure, and best after 2027. I was able to taste it over three days, and it was still driving hard with tension and energy by day three, and only then beginning to open, which is the mark of a wine with tremendous cellaring potential. Yields were lower than average for the estate. Collectors need to note that this isn't a massive shift in style but rather a trend toward building wine with piercing acidity that ensures it will age for decades. And at this price, it should wow with freshness and energy well into 2041, 2051, or 2061 when opened by those of you (or family members) fortunate enough to have held bottles that long. Have patience, and if you must open the wine in the first decade of its bottle life, taste a glass, then let it decant at cellar temperature for the better part of a day. Click to see full details | |
| Ovid, Red Wine | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | Each year, the blend of Ovid wines varies depending on the vintage. Winemaker Austin Peterson prefers not to pre-plan the blend, instead approaching each vintage with a fresh perspective. Often, the wine needs more Cabernet Sauvignon to qualify as a Napa Valley varietal wine. The vineyard features an abundance of Clone 4, planted across four of its 17 blocks within the 6ha site. This clone contributes a distinctive savoury character and polish, evident in the 2021 vintage with its flinty minerals, green tobacco, and mulberry fruit, reminiscent of Napa Cabernets from the 1970s. Comprising 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot, and 4% Petit Verdot, the wine is aged 20 months in 66% new French oak. It is full-bodied with ripe, chewy tannins that assert themselves on entry but gradually soften, revealing a beautifully layered wine with mineral-infused mulberry fruit and green tobacco aromas. The wine exhibits notable tension, supported by a pH level 3.78, ensuring vibrancy and freshness. It is a pedigreed wine characterised by balance, intensity, and complexity. Click to see full details | |
| Paul Hobbs, Nathan Coombs Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Coombsville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | Paul Hobbs' 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from their Nathan Coombs Estate was hand-sorted while still cold from night-harvesting, fermented in small, closed-top, stainless steel tanks with native yeasts, cold soaked for five days and macerated for 30 days with gentle pump-overs and délestage, aged 20 months in 96% new French oak barrels, including Darnajou, Taransaud, Boutes, Leroi, Baron, La Grange, Marchive, and Vicard coopers and bottled unfined and unfiltered. This is an immaculate wine. It is positively brimming with incredible upfront drinking appeal, but this is a wine you could lay down for a generation. It's a masterful creation, imbued with tension, density, ironstone, and black rock minerality so prominent that you taste pulverised igneous and metamorphic rocks in powder form. The mineral component is just remarkable. Medium-bodied with beautifully pure black cherry and blackberry fruits, black olive, and liquorice, underscored by such precision-focused tannins that the textural feel is so delicate, pixelated, and silky, the wine glides over the palate with ease. An undercurrent of expressive acidity keeps everything light and refreshing, and nuances of tobacco, brown baking spices, salty dark chocolate, and cedarwood layer in a tapestry of flavours that will meld together over the years to form a wine so pleasing it might simply be overwhelming. Click to see full details | |
| Philip Togni, Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | Tasted with Lisa and Philip Togni in their winery atop Spring Mountain in February of 2024. An absolutely riveting Cabernet showing a deep ruby-purple colour. Gorgeously fragrant at the cork's pull with terrific violets and loads of black currants and dark dried herbs. Medium to full-bodied with chiselled, precise tannins that build and build on the palate. At this early stage, the wine is full of ripe blackberry and black currant fruits that harbour impressive clarity of flavours, growing even more expressive with beautiful sagebrush nuances. Philipp Togni remarked that this vintage reminds him of St. Julien. Indeed, it is incredibly aromatic, elegant, and structured, and it is also a complete and seamless wine. 82% Cabernet Sauvignon is joined by 15% Merlot, 2% Cabernet France, and 1% Petit Verdot. Click to see full details | |
| Schrader Cellars, LPV Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard, St Helena | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | The 2021 vintage release of LPV Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is the last year Schrader Cellars will source grapes from this iconic, rocky Napa Valley site. A robust red, the 15.4% alcohol level is hardly evident because of the wine's impeccable balance on the palate. It boasts a beautiful mineral intensity that lifts out of the glass, tinged with smoky wild herbs and black currant fruits. The medium to full-bodied palate has natural elegance in its super-fine-grained cocoa-nib tannins. It is counterbalanced by an attractive layer of ironstone minerality and entirely supported by a generous backbone of racy acidity. The finish is extravagantly long, fueled by refreshing acid tension and a mineral edge. Succulent and well-built, it is a Cabernet for the ages. Winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown has crafted a masterpiece, and it's a beautiful wine for this label's swan song from such an underrated site. Click to see full details | |
| Screaming Eagle, Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | The aromas of the 2021 Screaming Eagle are so precise and beautifully compact, giving a refined sense of finesse through savoury incense and dried spearmint intermixed with pure black fruit and graphite notes. On the palate, this medium-bodied wine opens up to an expansive mouthfeel with perfect concentration and depth of flavours, exuding black currants, just-picked blackberry, and Bing cherry, with a foundation of ironstone minerality. Palate etching tannins are multi-dimensional. It is a serious wine with tension, remarkable grip, intensity, and a firm spine of zesty acidity that brightens the lengthy finish. Perfectly balanced and expressive and even a bit savage. Best after 2027. Click to see full details | |
| Simon Family Estate, Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | How do you craft an Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon that competes with Harlan, Futo, Opus One, and Dalla Valle? With the powers that be, who leverages the best To Kalon Vineyard fruit? This is winemaker Maayan Koschitzky's answer to that question. He blended grapes from two benchmark sites in the Oakville appellation -- Vine Hill Ranch on the western Mayacamas foothills and Tench on steeper west-facing slopes of the Vaca range. Lovely and classic Oakville nose of pure black fruit, graphite, cassis, and sagebrush notes framed by elegant cedarwood. Full-bodied and layered with spiced plums, blackberry, and crunchy black cherry fruits framed by superfine-grained tannins perfectly sculpted and underscored by wet stone mineral and graphite. A spine of crisp, fine-boned acidity delivers a refreshing finish of blood orange and spring flowers. A complete wine that is seamless. Native yeast in stainless steel with 30 days on the skins. Click to see full details | |
| The Debate, The Ultimate Red Wine | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | The 2021 Debate's ‘Ultimate’ bottling combines 50% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Artalade Vineyard on Pritchard Hill and Harbison Vineyard in Oakville with 50% Cabernet Franc from Sleeping Lady Vineyard in Yountville and Stagecoach Vineyard. It is a perfect wine, hitting all the marks with a seamless, balanced and expressive personality that shows some self-restraint in its youth, indicative of a cellar-worthy jewel. A rich tapestry of blackberry, black raspberry, and blueberry fruit aromas intermix with elegant cedarwood spices. Full-bodied with positively silky and satiny layers of the same fruits from the bouquet, perfectly delineated and perfectly framed by the most precise, superfine-grained tannins that form long, interwoven chains. A perfect backbone of crisp and refreshing acidity means this is a wine that should be cellared for the long haul and only bottled in magnums. The finish is everlasting and fueled by saline minerals, wild herbs, cigar leaves, and rich earthy humus. Only 300 magnums were produced. Winemaker Jean Hoefliger has crafted a wine for the ages with this one. Click to see full details | |
| TOR Wines, Black Magic, | Napa Valley | 2021 | 100 | In 2013, an earthquake in Napa caused TOR to lose twenty per cent of wine ageing in barrels that year. It was the same year that winemaker Jeff Ames isolated the B Block of Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard because he felt it possessed a quality unmatched in other vintages. After the earthquake, they recovered five barrels from that block and fully expected to blend it into their To Kalon Vineyard bottling. However, those barrels created a whole and complete wine themselves. Jeff and Tor agreed it should be its own wine. Inspired by the Mel Torme song, 'Black Magic', Tor decided to bottle those barrels from the B Block and call it 'Black Magic'. It was the most potent wine from that vintage, and tasting it with Tor and Jeff at Tor's home in St. Helena, California, in early 2024, with a decade of bottle age, it was richly aromatic with pure black fruit notes, wild herbs, savoury herbs, graphite minerality and fragrant cedarwood. The succulent fruit profile harbours impressive density, and super precise, fine-grained tannins offer excellent grip. Nuances of black liquorice, dried sage, and salty minerals build on the wonderfully fresh and energetic finish. Since 2013, Black Magic has become a barrel selection reflective of the vintage and vineyards. Click to see full details | |
| Accendo Cellars, Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Bart and Daphne Aurajo established Accendo Cellars after selling their Araujo Estate (now Eisele Vineyard) to the Artemis Group. In 2021, they passed the torch to second-generation partners Jaime and Greg Araujo. Grapes are sourced from Vine Hill Ranch in Oakville, Sleeping Lady Vineyard in Yountville, Eco Tone (a former Abreu property) above the Meadowood estate, and a site on Diamond Mountain formerly known as Reverie. Winemaker Nigel Kinsman says the idea is to express Napa Valley Cabernet through the lens of exceptional vineyard sites. It also allows him to experiment with other varieties to combine a seamless wine year to year. Agee 22 months in roughly 70% new French oak. A solid wine showing the dynamic structure of a vintage that produced smaller yields, deep concentration, and powerful tannins, which Kinsman has refined in this bottling, as they are intricate, linear, super-fine, and seamless. Pure red berry fruit tones leap from the glass, nuanced by sagebrush, earth, and dried spring flowers. Medium to full-bodied with compact black cherry, blackberry, and plum fruits laced with brown baking spices and a long, mineral-infused finish redolent of graphite and wet slate. An exceptional showing, balancing the intensity of the vintage with noticeable freshness. Best from 2025. Click to see full details | |
| AXR, Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Another terrific expression of the iconic Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard from AXR's Jean Hoefliger. This is a beautiful wine, which, in 2019, earned a perfect score. The 2021 has perfect-score potential but needs a few more years in the bottle. It is so refined on the nose and palate. Almost too refined and almost too inward of itself. It clearly wants to be more expressive, and the sign of a great wine (from a great site) is often its youthful reticence. Leading with ripe black cherry and blackberry fruits laced with tobacco and sagebrush notes. Pure, round, ripe and supple fruits build on the palate, such as blackberry and black cherry, framed by crushed stone minerals, creme de cassis, and dried violet florals. Ultra fine-grained tannins provide a solid foundation, underscored by a backbone of bright acid tension. Deep layers of gravelly, alluvial loam soils in the 36.4ha Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard play a critical factor in the low pH levels from Cabernet grapes harvested here, says winemaker Jean Hoefliger. Click to see full details | |
| B Cellars, Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Cabernet Sauvignon, St Helena | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | From the iconic Beckstoffer Dr. Crane, B Cellars was Founded in 2003 by business partners Duffy Keys and Jim Borsack. Kirk Venge began making wine for B Cellars in 2004. Aged in Tranasaud and Darnajou barrels, it shows super fragrant dusty mineral notes, dried sagebrush, and blackberry fruits with a full-bodied richness divined by expressive minerality, fragrant dried florals, and sweet cedar on an everlasting finish. Click to see full details | |
| Bond, Vecina Red Wine, | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | It is a striking wine with a host of violet florals, creme de cassis, black cherry, and liquorice aromas. Super juicy fruit on the medium—to full-bodied palate is redolent of blackberry, black cherry, and plums. Burly tannins have a crisp edge and need time to soften. They counter the generosity of the wine, giving it a firm backbone. There's a fresh lift on the finish from a spine of bright, tingly acidity. Vecina is BOND's exceptional Oakville source within Vine Hill Ranch. Click to see full details | |
| Cliff Lede, Poetry Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Cliff Lede's 2021 Poetry is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with 6% each of Merlot and Cabernet Franc and 3% Petit Verdot, aged 21 months in 74% new oak and sourced entirely from their impressively steep Poetry estate hillside vineyard in the Stags Leap District AVA. The 2021 release of this now-iconic blend proves Poetry is one of Napa Valley's genuine ‘grand cru’ sites. A super-expressive, gorgeously fragrant nose kicks off with mineral qualities like a rush of rocky graphite, blue slate, and crushed stones, coupled with terrifically pure black cherry and black currant fruit laced with tobacco and violet petals. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, the silken, supple quality of the fruit is immediately noticeable—matched by the ripe, silky, and seamless tannins that are present but perfectly integrated. The fruit qualities build with incredible depth and delineation, with currant flavours building until they release on a lengthy finish punctuated by chalky minerals, crisp acidity, and dried floral notes infused with sage and tobacco leaf. Long, pure, laser-focused, and built of the ages. Click to see full details | |
| Dalla Valle Vineyards, MDV, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | This is a tiny production wine made only in certain vintages when enough of a cut can be made that it doesn't detract from the Maya bottling, as this is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Maya's Block. It is a stand-out wine in the lineup, super polished, incredibly expressive, and layered with classic Cabernet Sauvignon notes of blackberry, graphite, and garrigue with perfectly integrated sweet cedar spices. Full-bodied with satiny soft fruit, superfine mineral-laced tannins, sweetly perfumed black cherry and plum fruits, and even early spring Rainier cherry notes. Long and focused while deeply layered and impressionable. Maya Dalla Valley, the daughter of founder Naoko Dalla Valle, is the winemaker with Andy Erickson and Michel Rolland consulting, while Edgar Alfaro manages the vineyards. Click to see full details | |
| Diamond Creek Vineyards, Red Rock Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon, Diamond Mountain | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | From the 2ha Red Rock Terrace single vineyard. A blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon with 6% Petit Verdot and 6% Malbec (the estate's non-Cabernet Sauvignon varieties are mostly planted at the bottom of Volcanic Hill). Fermentation in small, open-top fermenters, followed by a cold soak and gentle extraction of up to 21 days on skins. Aged 20 months in nearly 75% new French Oak and aged one year in bottle before release. Super perfumed nose of rose petals, cassis, olive tapenade, and mocha spices. Medium to full-bodied with generous, mineral-laced red berry fruits, black cherry, and pomegranate seed. This is a precise and beautifully polished wine with a Pauillac-like quality in this mesmerising mineral character and pure-fruited precision. Nuances of white pepper and sagebrush layer in complexity, and a wealth of firm tannins are underscored by a spine of racy acidity. Tension, tension, tension. This may be one of the most age-worthy Red Rock Terrace bottlings yet. Let's check back in around 2050, with several intermittent ‘check-ins’ along the way. During my visit in June of 2024, Nicole Carter (president) and winemaker Graham Wehmeier took me on a tour of the property to get an upfront and close look at Diamond Creek's single vineyards (Volcanic Hill, Gravelly Meadow, and Red Rock Terrace). Graham, who joined in 2020, has dialled down the toast levels on the oak and is exploring new cooperages. The wines are more expressive of site than ever, with a freshness factor dialled way up. Click to see full details | |
| JH Wheeler, Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Winemaker Nigel Kinsman knows what to do with Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from the iconic Vine Hill Ranch in the Oakville AVA. Aged for 22 months in 78% new French oak, this wine reveals a sophisticated and multi-layered profile. Dusty cranberry and strawberry aromas mingle with fresh tangerine peel, grapefruit zest, cocoa nibs, and fragrant dried herbs. Full-bodied, it boasts mineral-laced, red-toned fruit with fine-grained, palate-coating tannins. Super dense dark berry fruit builds on the palate, resolving with a mix of tension and grace. This is a dramatic and voluminous wine, showcasing Kinsman's exceptional winemaking prowess. As deep, dark, and statuesque as the man himself, it is a testament to his artistry and the quality of the grape source. The JH Wheeler label represents a portfolio of wines from Wheeler Farms, co-founded by Bart and Daphne Araujo and partners in 2014. The Araujos have a longstanding connection to Vine Hill Ranch, ensuring a legacy of excellence and quality in each bottle. Click to see full details | |
| Lokoya, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Since 1995, Lokoya has produced Cabernet from the Veeder Peak Estate at 548m on the western ridges of the Mayacamas Mountains. This is a do-not-open wine for until at least 2026. Full-bodied with palate-arresting tannins that are super-compact, long, and so densely pixelated they etch themselves into every nook and cranny on the palate. Only a minute later does your mouth find release as this thread of crunchy acidity begins to sweep away the powerful tannins to reveal the underlying blue fruit and violet aromatics that are so beautifully pure and youthful. Simply put, tuck it away for several years and then, if you can, explore bottles every few years until your stash runs out. In the low-yielding 2021 vintage, the skin-to-juice ratio is such that this may prove to be one of the longest-lived Lokoya wines yet, given the intensity of the tannin and the freshness of the underlying acidity. Chris Carpenter makes the Lokoya wines, and the label is owned by the Jackson Family. There are four 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the portfolio, each from a different mountain: Diamond Mountain, Howell Mountain, Spring Mountain, and Mt. Veeder. The winemaking is the same for all the wines, with mostly native yeast fermentation, pump-overs by hand, malolactic fermentation in barrel and ageing for 22 months in 90% new French oak. What separates these wines is not style but place. Carpenter believes that fine Napa Valley Cabernet wines are not only defined by the soils of their sites but also by the Bay Area Pacific breezes that roll in and out daily, cooling the valley from the south to the north in the evenings and from the north to the south in the mornings. These mountains define cooling as any place in the valley and the diurnal temperature shifts at higher elevations create an equilibrium where climatic fluctuations aren't as pronounced as fruit grown below the fog lines. Click to see full details | |
| Lokoya, Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | The Lokoya Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is primarily sourced from their estate-owned 10ha Yverdon vineyard at 640m and the 18ha Wurtele vineyard at around 304m. The soils are mostly ocean-bottom sedimentary. What strikes you immediately is the minerality and earthiness in the bouquet, which is super expressive of gravely and loamy soils and with bright and focused black cherry and blueberry fruit notes. A stealthy dose of brisk and firm mineral-laced mountain tannins sneaks up, framed by intensely perfumed rose petal notes and underscored by refreshing blood orange acidity. You can't believe the freshness until it presents in juicy waves through an extended, full-bodied finish. Chris Carpenter makes the Lokoya wines, and the label is owned by the Jackson Family. Four 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines are in the portfolio, each from a different mountain: Diamond Mountain, Howell Mountain, Spring Mountain, and Mt. Veeder. The winemaking is the same for all the wines, with mostly native yeast fermentation, pump-overs by hand, malolactic fermentation in barrel, and ageing for 22 months in 90% new French oak. What separates these wines is not style but place. Carpenter believes that fine Napa Valley Cabernet wines are not only defined by the soils of their sites but also by the Bay Area Pacific breezes that roll in and out daily, cooling the valley from the south to the north in the evenings and from the north to the south in the mornings. These mountains define cooling as any place in the valley. The diurnal temperature shifts at higher elevations create an equilibrium where climatic fluctuations aren't as pronounced as fruit grown below the fog lines. Click to see full details | |
| Matthiasson, Phoenix Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | This is a single-vineyard expression of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Phoenix Vineyard surrounding the Matthiasson winery, situated on an east-facing steep hillside at the base of Mt. Veeder, on a promontory of rare ancient marine shale soils overlooking the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. Texturally and aromatically, it is so different from the Dead Fred Cabernet. This is super light and floral-driven and more like a Nebbiolo. It's aged in foudre to preserve the fresh fruit quality. Multiple picks ensure ripeness and some are whole cluster pressed. It's so pretty and pure it's almost like mineral water that's been flavoured. The wine has a natural grip and is laser-focused and linear. It is the epitome of elegance and a classy wine in a class of its own. During my tasting with Steve, he added some colour to the Phoenix Vineyard, explaining that it was planted in 1982, with more vines added in the late 1980s. The Cabernet Sauvignon is an old field selection massale from Mt. Veeder, with the oldest vines on AXR rootstock (sadly susceptible to Phylloxera) and next to those grapes, the same selection is grafted to 5BB, a slightly more drought-tolerant rootstock, which handles the hillside. Matthiasson bought the site in 2017, and the farms it organically and without irrigation. A delicious wine that will last for half a century. Click to see full details | |
| Pahlmeyer, Pièce de Résistance | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Pure, expressive, and seamless, it offers a classic expression of Napa Cabernet in its ripe blackberry fruit, graphite nuances, sagebrush, and subtle spearmint notes. Adding to all that is a lifted sense of earthy minerality. On the palate, this is medium to full-bodied, with perfect fruit cues of boysenberry fruit and spiced plums, with nuances of clove, dried herbs, and very firm fine-grained tannins with a firm backbone of refreshing acidity. Tension-filled, with a long mineral-scented finish. Capable of long-term cellaring. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon was aged in 100% new French oak and is a culmination of the very best lots from Pahlmeyer's estate fruit sources and grower partners. Grapes are hand sorted, destemmed, gravity fed, optically sorted and sent into large oak tanks. Aged 19 months in Taransaud heavy toast barrels. The grape sources were Vangaone on Atlas Peak and Stagecoach Block 8. Click to see full details | |
| Rudd, Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Rudd Estate is situated in east Oakville, where vines are subject to late afternoon sun and heat, so mitigating those effects in the vineyard is paramount to ensure a "crescendo of acidity," as winemaker Natalie Bath puts it. Strikingly aromatic with intriguing savoury nuances that lead with ironstone volcanic minerals, nuanced by sagebrush, spicebush, and dried tobacco leaves, framed by pure black cherry, blackberry, and cassis. Medium-bodied, lifted, fresh, and filled with vitality on the palate, layered with more cherry and black currant, fragrant dried herbs and fig leaf, which weave an aromatic and flavour-driven tapestry around the ultra-fine-grained dusty tannins, which dissolve like fine powdery minerals, building to a long earth-and-cocoa-nib-driven finish. There is such freshness and vibrancy in this elegantly fashioned red. The 2021 harvest, completed on the early side by mid-September, marks Natalie Bath's first vintage entirely in the driver's seat as Rudd Estate winemaker (she first worked in the cellars back in 2012). Click to see full details | |
| Scarecrow, Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | The 2021 vintage of Scarecrow is a blend of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Malbec, and 2% Petit Verdot, all harvested from the J.J. Cohn estate in Rutherford. Aged 21 months in 75% new French oak, bottled unfined and unfiltered. A seamless wine, it boasts a super dense core of bright, ripe blackberry and black cherry fruit framed by superfine, dusty-mineral-laced tannins. Lovely kirsch and dried currant fruit intermix with dried floral notes, grapefruit peel, and a long core of crushed stone minerals with hints of espresso beans and crunchy pomegranate seeds. It's so fresh, with impressive density and a core of beautifully precise and sweet ripe fruit balanced by the persistence of its pure mineral character. The backstory of this iconic cult Napa label points to co-founder Bret Lopez's grandfather, Joseph Judson Cohn, who bought 78 hectares in Rutherford near Inglenook in 1942 as a summer getaway for his family. Cohn, who passed away at 100 in 1996, was described as ‘one of the five men who built Metro Goldwyn Mayer’ and "one of the powers in the business," who preferred "no screen credits, no publicity." He was head of production at the studio during its heyday when it produced classics such as "Ben Hur" and "The Wizard of Oz". In 1945, Cohn's Rutherford neighbour, John Daniel Jr. of Inglenook, convinced Cohn to plant some hectares of vines and sell him the fruit. Much later, Cohn's grandson, Bret Lopez, who fondly remembered summers at the Rutherford estate, desired that the Cohn Ranch, as it was called, remain in the family after Cohn passed away. Lopez and his sisters inherited it but had trouble co-managing the property. When Lopez offered to buy the sisters out, it was decided that the best way to find a fair price was to put it on the open market. The family didn’t fully understand the property's value, but valley insiders did. As interest grew, Lopez began to see that he wouldn’t have the money to buy the property from his sisters unless he found a partner. As one of the “sellers”, he’d have the right of first refusal, but if he couldn’t match the highest bid, it wouldn’t matter. Lopez found a willing partner in his neighbour, Francis Ford Coppola, who owns Inglenook. An ideal partnership was formed with Coppola’s cash and Lopez’s equity. Ultimately, Lopez kept roughly ten planted hectares, the late 19th-century house, and some of the hillside wilderness behind the home. Coppola absorbed the rest of the Cohn Ranch into his Inglenook estate. Lopez and his wife, Mimi DeBlasio, set out to create a wine label that pays homage to his grandfather, and in 2006, the first vintage of Scarecrow (’03) was released. Celia Welch makes the wine, and Mike Wolf farms the 10-ha J.J. Cohn Estate. Both Welch and Wolf continue to work in tandem today. Click to see full details | |
| Schrader Cellars, Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | 2021 marks the 20th vintage of Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon for Schrader Cellars. It's a monumental red, with a skyscraper's structure and the rocket's length heading straight for outer space. Youthfully exuberant, the nose leads with a heady mix of red and black-toned fruits and mocha spices. The wine has excellent energy and tension in the mouth, with towering, full-throttle tannins and lasting intensity. The finish is profoundly mineral-driven and framed by a spine of soaring acidity. Although incredibly attractive now, I feel the Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet has robust staying power, with the 'bones' to the cellar for the long term. Click to see full details | |
| Shafer, Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Aged 32 months in 100% new French oak. It is quintessentially Stags Leap, with grapes grown on Shafer's famous Hillside estate vineyard, roughly 25ha, with very shallow volcanic tufa soils. It's a barrel selection of the very best blocks. A total of 2,900 cases were produced. Such a beautifully balanced wine with tremendous staying power and expressive Stags Leap ironstone minerality with heady sagebrush and conifer notes with white pepper and walnut husk. The wine has an impressive depth of red-toned fruit on the mid-palate framed by tannins that practically dance across the palate, exuding length, tension, and power. Huckleberry and black cherry fruits, black truffle, dried violets, graphite, and salted dark chocolate are all framed by racy acidity, which keeps everything fresh and lifted. The 2021 releases mark Elias Fernandez's 38th vintage as Shafer's winemaker. He was hired by John Shafer in 1984, two weeks out of UC Davis. Click to see full details | |
| Stone the Crows, Golden Crow Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | A glass staining deep ruby with purple hues. Lavis red and black-toned fruits mingle with wild herbs, volcanic minerals, and toasty oak on the nose. Full-bodied, vibrant and black-fruited, dark loamy earth, tobacco, and cedarwood laced with baking spices, violets and creme de menthe. Fine-grained tannins weave a delicate tapestry around all that ripe black fruit, creating a seamless and satiny palate impression and picking up momentum and freshness from emerging acidity that resolves with stony minerality and dusty wild herbs. This is the inaugural release of Golden Crow, a magnum-only bottling with a selection of the best barrels in the cellar, produced in only the best vintages. Founding winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown fermented grapes in stainless tanks and left them 14-16 days on the skins, with a few days of cold soaking and pump-overs twice daily. Aged 20 months in 80% new Darnajou, Remond, and La Grange barrels. Click to see full details | |
| The Debate, Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Jean calls the 2021 a "Legacy vintage" because it was bottled at low pHs (3.6-3.7). It is one of the most complete and exciting Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon wines of the vintage. It is all at once expressive and profoundly structured and is sure to be a classic that ages well into the 2040s. It leads with alluring blackberry and boysenberry fruit on the nose, joined by a wealth of brown spices, tobacco, cedar, and crushed stone minerals. The palate is simultaneously generous and reticent in its youth, showing hefty boysenberry fruits, kirsch, and minted tannins that are firm, taut, and form a solid foundation for this wine, which builds with a juicy intensity from the layered backbone of zesty acidity—long, balanced, and cellar-worthy. Click to see full details | |
| TOR Wines, Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, St Helena | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | The 2021 vintage of Beckstoffer Dr Crane Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from TOR Wines is sourced from the rockiest block in that famously rocky St. Helena vineyard, all planted to Clone 6 and aged in French oak for 18 months. This Cabernet is so fragrant, with an expressive minerality that lifts out of the glass like the dust of pulverised stones. Dried floral notes and black currants build further intrigue. A wine so layered, shaped from its base of polished tannins, and framed by a spine of exacting acidity that grips the palate and resolves with a lengthy finish marked by excellent freshness, salty minerals, and expressive wild herbs. Medium to full-bodied, with precision and focus, this is one of the finest wines TOR and Jeff Ames produced in the 2021 vintage. Click to see full details | |
| Ulysses, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 99 | Simply put, Christian Moueix's Napa Valley project Ulysses is a wine every collector of Napa Cabernet should have in their cellar. The 2021 release of the Oakville red is a knockout that is never too bombastic, entirely reserved even in its generosity, and one that will last a very long time. A dry winter and spring led to the second consecutive year of a drought that began in January 2020. Temperatures were warm and consistent and slightly above average. The vines produced smaller clusters of small berries with high phenolic compounds and tannin levels. 1,400 cases produced. Opaque purple-ruby to the rim. A wine showing all the best qualities you'd expect from a prime Oakville site. This is a beautifully balanced red, imbued with a tremendously fresh streak of acidity. The nose leads with prime, ripe, dark black fruits, cassis, violets, creme de menthe, and crushed slate.—medium to full-bodied with impressively fashioned tannins that are robust and build through the extravagantly long finish. Marked by ripe black cherry and spiced plum notes, the length is extended by zesty blood orange acidity. Fragrant with sage and thyme, nuanced by brighter cherry blossom freshness and mineral tension. Impressive depth and density with a core of pure, ripe, and juicy fruit. Exceptional. This was the last wine in a complete vertical tI tasted with Moueix and winemaker Tod Mostero in a tasting room tucked within the barn on the Ulysses Vineyard site. 'I'm thrilled,' commented Moueix, 'There's a real dignity to the wines.' Moueix said that until this tasting, he hadn't quite noticed the style signature but found it emerging, though cautioned, 'Even with our experience next door at Dominus, we are still figuring it out.' For Mostero, 'Making these has been a discovery of place. With our mature vines, we're just beginning to get a sense of the true resonance of the place. The 2021 typifies what we can expect. This arrow-like structure that is piercing, resonant, and strong.' Click to see full details | |
| Amuse Bouche Winery, Au Sommet Cabernet Sauvignon, Atlas Peak | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Au Sommet did not produce a wine in 2020. Drought conditions, which persisted from the end of 2020, reduced yields in Napa Valley and just 400 cases of this blend of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot were produced. The winemaker is Heidi Barrett (formerly of Screaming Eagle and Vineyard 29), working with John Schwartz and viticulturist Jim Barbour. From Atlas Peak at 640m elevation, this gorgeous 2021 Napa Cabernet is imbued with tremendous freshness, poise, and energy. Focused and pure aromas and flavours of black cherries and spiced plums are laced with flinty minerals, crushed cocoa nibs, and perfumed dried florals with just a hint of incense. Medium-bodied and exuding elegance through deftly integrated precision-focused tannins and a firm spine of zesty acidity. Long, complex, and invigorating. Click to see full details | |
| Annulus Cellars, Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Husband-wife Luke and Diane Evnin own Annulus Cellars. Nigel Kinsman met them through Bart Araujo. They make the wine at Wheeler Farms in Rutherford and source grapes from some of Napa's top sites. This is from Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard in Oakville, entirely from Block 2 on the southern side up against Hopper Creek. Incredibly polished and refined with no hard edges. Superfine tannins are intricate and lengthy, underscored by a firm spine of lacy acidity. The fruit profile is pure, ripe, and succulent, with a density lifted by that bright spine of acidity. Flavours and aromas of blackberry and black cherry are nuanced by crushed cocoa nibs, tobacco and rich earth on the lengthy finish. Gorgeous now and capable of long-term cellaring. Click to see full details | |
| B Cellars, Beckstoffer Las Piedras Cabernet Sauvignon, St Helena | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | From Beckstoffer Las Piedras. Super vibrant and tense with velvety tannins nuanced by aromatic sagebrush, thyme, and fennel notes wrapped in fragrant cedarwood with graham cracker crust. Candied red cherry fruit with Kirsch in a full-bodied expression with elegant ironstone mineral, length, intensity, and a firm spine of lacy acidity. This will be a long-lived wine. B Cellars was Founded in 2003 by business partners Duffy Keys and Jim Borsack. Kirk Venge began making wine for B Cellars in 2004. Click to see full details | |
| Beaulieu Vineyard, Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | What a spectacular showing of this iconic wine in the terrific 2021 vintage. Deep ruby with a purple hue, it just exudes elegance and statesmanship. It has a noble quality to it that begins with its precise and lifted bouquet of dried rose petals, kirsch, Blackberry, and cassis fruit interlaced with sagebrush, sandalwood, and toasty cedarwood. Perfectly medium to full-bodied, showcasing a dazzling spectrum of silken red and black fruits redolent of strawberry, cherry, plum, and blackberry atop a substantial bed of taut, mineral-tinged tannins. A spine of racy acidity lifts the panoply of fruit, and the finish reveals a plethora of wild herbs, cast iron notes, pastille, and white pepper, nuanced by rich, toasty oak infused with toffee and vanilla bean. It is one of the most satisfying and immediately enjoyable expressions of the Georges de Latour Private Reserve in the last decade. Produced by Trevor Durling, the fourth winemaker to follow in the footsteps of the great André Tchelistcheff. Click to see full details | |
| Bella Oaks, Proprietary Red Wine, Rutherford | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Nigel Kinsman, who makes the wines, allows 25-35 days on the skins after a week of cold soaking and during fermentation, which gets quite warm. He's looking for just the right amount of extraction and integration. The Proprietary Red was aged 22 months in roughly 85% new French oak. Bella Oaks is owned by Suzanne Deal Booth, with Kinsman as winemaker and Michel Rolland as consulting winemaker. Plenty of power and muscularity in this red, but also elegance and finesse. It strikes quite a balancing act. Infused with blackberry and black cherry fruits, toffee and cedarwood spices, the fruit offers tremendous elegance and purity, with a polished, juicy quality, underscored by intricate and fine-grained tannins spiced up with cardamom, coriander, and salty crushed stones. Click to see full details | |
| Bond, St. Eden Red Wine | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Richly scented black cherry fruit lifts out of this glass, nuanced by alluring cedarwood spices and walnut husk. It is medium-bodied with intricate tannins that are super pronounced and have a chocolaty tinge. The wine resolves with blood orange acidity and a long ironstone mineral finish. The style of this wine is incredibly consistent from year to year. In 2021, it boasts super expressive acidity with a long, linear finish. The Cabernet Sauvignon grapes come from a 4.4ha site on a knoll of the valley floor in Oakville with iron-rich fractured volcanic soils. Click to see full details | |
| Bond, Pluribus Red Wine | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | A super ripe fruited nose of boysenberry intermixed with kirsch and nuances of wild thyme, rosemary, and sage. Assertive tannins balance the wine's medium-bodied richness. This is a very compact wine out of the gate with tart, racy acidity and the vivid, pure subtlety of biting into the crisp berry skin of a crunchy black cherry or Red Delicious apple. Pluribus is a vineyard rooted in Aiken loam soils on Spring Mountain, surrounded by conifer and redwoods. Click to see full details | |
| Cardinale, Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | In my tasting with winemaker Chris Carpenter, we talked at length about differentiating sub-appellations of Napa in the Lokoya wines. Still, with Cardinale, the Oakville-based crown jewel in the Jackson Family portfolio, the idea is the sum must be greater than the parts. This is not an estate wine. It is culled from multiple appellations, typically between three and nine, depending on the vintage. Sources have been Vine Hill Ranch and To Kalon in the past. The 2021 is 91% Cabernet Sauvignon from Stags Leap, Rutherford, and St. Helena, with 9% Merlot from the 24ha Keyes Estate Vineyard on Howell Mountain, aged 22 months in 80% new French oak. Super savoury aromatics of black cherry, cedar, black liquorice, graphite, black tea, tobacco leaf, rose petal and sagebrush. Full-bodied with all those aromatic qualities making appearances on the full-bodied palate, framed by a soaring tannin profile that resolves with beautifully crisp and mouthwatering acidity, which is so impressive given the density of the wine. The acidity is so pure and cleansing it gives the sensation of fresh, crisp mountain water washing away the deeply robust and powerful tannins that frame this powerhouse wine, readying you for another sip. Click to see full details | |
| Chateau Montelena, The Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Calistoga | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The Montelena Estate is a gorgeous wine in 2021, built of 94.1% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4.9% Cabernet Franc, and 1.0% Petit Verdot, aged 22 months in 45% new French oak. It is super bright and wonderfully aromatic with gorgeous light brown spices, white pepper, and sagebrush. Medium-bodied with cranberry and huckleberry fruits, they have very ripe and powerful tannins with supreme granularity and a fine, pinpoint, pixelated texture. Fantastic, linear, and racy acidity brings this wine into focus. Tasted with winemaker Matt Crafton at Chateau Montelena, Crafton explained that 'the aromatic potential of the vintage leapt out.' For him, the challenge was to reflect the concentration and richness and keep the fresh aromatics. So he moved to very light toast barrels in this vintage. Click to see full details | |
| Corison, Kronos Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, St Helena | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The 2021 rendition of Cathy Corison's iconic Kronos Vineyard Cabernet is one of the vintage's most seamless, refreshing, and focused Cabernets. Super polished tannins are seamlessly integrated, while the fruit profile is remarkably pure, light, and vibrant with tangy-bright mixed berry fruit that is nuanced by white pepper and crushed wild herbs. It is stunning now and will reward patient collectors over the next few decades. The vineyard was planted in 1971 on St. George rootstock. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon is aged 20 months in 50% new French oak. The winery has been a Napa staple since opening its doors in 1987. Click to see full details | |
| Corison, Sunbasket Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, St Helena | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Cathy Corison has made this single-vineyard designate from Sunbasket Vineyard in the St. Helena AVA since 2015. Aged 20 months in 50% new French oak it is the most powerful Cabernet she makes. Bold and richly aromatic of dark berry fruits, chocolate and cedarwood with a refreshing hint of orchard pit and sandalwood. Full, round and rife with fine-grained chewy tannins, lacy acidity, and a host of pure fruit flavours redolent of cherry, plum, raspberry, and even muddled apricot. For all its brooding qualities on the bouquet, it shows a light and vibrant palate expression with a beautiful saline mineral finish and hints of spring flowers. Impressive for a 100% Cabernet. Click to see full details | |
| Dalla Valle Vineyards, Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The core blocks for the Cabernet come from those in front of the house (House Block) and from further down the west-facing hill and a block on the right-hand side of the driveway through the gate, which is typically a later ripening block that imparts good natural acidity, imparting focus and length to the wine. Those blocks are later blended with a barrel selection of the Cabernet Franc blocks from the property. The Cabernet Franc is roughly 30% of the entire vineyard. A towering wine in 2021, the estate's Flagship is super compact, teeming with concentrated black-toned fruits and perfectly integrated cedarwood spices. The tannins are elliptical with a palate-coating pixelated quality that comes into focus as the wine opens to reveal scented rose petals and black cherry, Damson plums, and tobacco spices. Nuances of crushed cocoa nibs and fragrant graphite minerality add depth and intrigue. Extravagantly long on the finish, revealing even more dried floral notes, herbs, and subtle hints of Indian spices. Don't even think of opening it until 2025 or 2026, and be sure to enjoy this wine, a bottle a year, at least for the next three decades or more. Maya Dalla Valley, the daughter of founder Naoko Dalla Valle, is the winemaker with Andy Erickson and Michel Rolland consulting, while Edgar Alfaro manages the vineyards. Click to see full details | |
| Diamond Creek, Volcanic Hill Cabernet Sauvignon, Diamond Mountain | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | From the 3ha Volcanic Hill single vineyard. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Fermentation in small, open-top fermenters, followed by a cold soak and gentle extraction of up to 21 days on skins. Aged 20 months in nearly 75% new French Oak and aged one year in bottle before release. Perhaps the darkest and most showy of the wines in 2021 in terms of its aromatics, boasting black plum and blue fruit notes and slatestone, with full-bodied richness, plush, seductive dark-berry fruits, and darker earth mineral character nuanced by grilled herbs. Crisp, ripe tannins are super compact, layering in a solid foundation to support all the ripe, dark fruit character. There's plenty of tension here, too. During my visit in June of 2024, Nicole Carter (president) and winemaker Graham Wehmeier took me on a tour of the property to get an upfront and close look at Diamond Creek's single vineyards (Volcanic Hill, Gravelly Meadow, and Red Rock Terrace). There is a good amount of replanting going on, and as the young vine fruit comes online shortly, much of it will likely get blended into their Three Vineyard Blend as the winery's entry-level bottling. Graham, who joined in 2020, has dialled down the toast levels on the oak and is exploring new cooperages. Suffice it to say, the wines are more expressive of the site than ever, with a freshness factor dialled way up. Click to see full details | |
| Fairest Creature, Polyspline | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Wonderfully aromatic, with violets and black and blue fruits and plenty of rich cedarwood spices. The full-bodied palate is super attractive with supple fine-grained tannins, remarkable complexity, and strength. Superb length. Intense grip. It is very structured with saturating black fruits nuanced by red currants. Produced by Philippe Melka. Barrel-fermented Petit Verdot balances Cabernet Sauvignon. The name Polyspline is a mathematical term representing the smooth curve. Fairest Creature founder Jayson Hu enlisted Philippe Melka, Benoit Touquette, and Thomas Rivers Brown, aiming to showcase the expression of each winemaker's vision from top Napa vineyards in Oakville, Pritchard Hill, Howell Mountain, and St. Helena. Consultant Michel Rolland is the first to select his preferred barrels from every available lot to craft this Triniceros, a magnum-only blend. Click to see full details | |
| Favia, Cabernet Sauvignon, Coombsville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Sourced from three Coombsville vineyards: Meteor, The Rabbit Hole, and Collinetta. A glass-staining ruby-purple colour. Intensely aromatic blackberry and cherry fruits are pure, precise, and layered with fragrant cedarwood notes, white pepper, and dark chocolate. Full-bodied with unctuous and concentrated dark berry fruits that have a satiny quality, framed by velvety fine-grained tannins and gobs of red liquorice, aromatic violets, and graphite. So dense and tightly packed and yet so fresh and inviting. Click to see full details | |
| Harbison, Pony Express Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Harbison has 5ha of vines in prime Oakville terroir, bordering Screaming Eagle. Founders Joe and Pat Harbison produced JP Harbison wines from 1998 to 2007–auction wines that raised over $3m for children’s charities. Today, Jean Hoefliger is the consultant winemaker, and the grapes for this bottling come from the most northern blocks of the property. Incredibly savoury nose of black olive, black currants and iron-scented volcanic minerals. Lofty, lifted, silky and intensely concentrated black fruits abound on the full-bodied palate, imbued with earthy crushed rock minerals, a pop of clove and cardamon spices, and wildflowers on the precision-focused finish. Click to see full details | |
| Inglenook, Rubicon, Rutherford | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The 2021 vintage of Ingelnook's icon red Rubicon blends Cabernet Sauvignon (87%), Cabernet Franc (9%), and Merlot (4%) primarily from their Rutherford Bench estate parcels and is aged in 100% new French oak. The nose on this flagship wine is decidedly dark and expressive, with ripe, pure black fruit and liquorice aromas. Full-bodied with juicy black cherry, plum, and pomegranate fruit flavours on the palate framed by super fine, velvety, and integrated tannins with a very long, refreshing finish—including notes of blood orange and excellent mineral tension—that goes and goes and goes. Click to see full details | |
| Kinsman Eades, Anjea Sleeping Lady Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Yountville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | This Anjea bottling is from Sleeping Lady Vineyard, planted with Clone 22 of Cabernet and is very floral. Year after year, this wine boasts an exotic nose of candied red berries, dried rose petals, and apricot pit nuanced with brown baking spices. The wine is focused, with super-fine tannins and a wonderfully aromatic finish of dried thyme, sage, and unsmoked tobacco. Wonderfully complex and refined. This is the personal project of winemaker Nigel Kinsman and his wife, Shea. The name is derived from their surnames. Their first vintage was in 2016, and the wines are currently made at Wheeler Farms in St Helena. They are sourced from five single vineyard sites: M-Bar Ranch and Vine Hill Ranch in Oakville, Ecotone, and the former Reverie site on Diamond Mountain, as well as Sleeping Lady Vineyard in Yountville. Click to see full details | |
| Kinsman Eades, Aphex Ecotone Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | An aromatic wonder leading with a minerality that evokes crushed volcanic red rocks, cast iron, and grilled sage. It is incredibly soft and satiny with the finest tannins and a sanguine quality that infuses itself in the red-toned berry fruit, resolving with a saline-rich finish. There's so much tension and depth to the wine it is beguiling. Full of intrigue and complexity. The Petit Verdot is co-fermented with the Cabernet Sauvignon. The site, Ecotone, is all volcanic ash. This is the personal project of winemaker Nigel Kinsman and his wife, Shea. The name is derived from their surnames. Their first vintage was in 2016, and the wines are currently made at Wheeler Farms in St Helena. They are sourced from five single vineyard sites: M-Bar Ranch and Vine Hill Ranch in Oakville, Ecotone, and the former Reverie site on Diamond Mountain, as well as Sleeping Lady Vineyard in Yountville. Click to see full details | |
| Kinsman Eades, Käännös Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The Käännös bottling (Finnish for 'translation') is from Vine Hill Ranch. A tension-filled wine from vines nearing the slopes of the Mayacamas, and it's a loamy and clay soil with pockets of decomposed volcanic ash, with a slightly lower pH than what winemaker Nigel Kinsman gets from M-Bar Ranch, which is a stone's throw from this site. And they are different wines, with this showing a bright and dynamic red imbued with red-toned fruits, rich brown baking spices, cedarwood and tangerine peel aromatics. Loads of sagebrush, crunchy Bing cherries, and juicy plum fruit are framed by pixelated tannins and a grippy finish that resolves with saline minerality and dried spring flowers. An amazing wine. This is the personal project of winemaker Nigel Kinsman and his wife, Shea. The name is derived from their surnames. Their first vintage was 2016, and the wines are currently made at Wheeler Farms in St Helena. They are sourced from five single vineyard sites: M-Bar Ranch and Vine Hill Ranch in Oakville, Ecotone, and the former Reverie site on Diamond Mountain, as well as Sleeping Lady Vineyard in Yountville. Click to see full details | |
| Kinsman Eades, Rhadamanthus Cabernet Sauvignon, Diamond Mountain | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | This Rhadamanthus bottling is sourced from the rugged Diamond Mountain vineyard that used to be named Reverie, high above Diamond Creek's Red Rock Terraces vineyard. Co-fermented Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Black-toned fruit aromatics, white pepper, sagebrush and cedar. Full-bodied with silky tannins, pure blackberry fruits, black cherry, tobacco, graphite, and a plethora of dried herbs, a pop of spearmint and salty minerals on the long, focused finish. This is the personal project of winemaker Nigel Kinsman and his wife, Shea. The name is derived from their surnames. Their first vintage was 2016, and the wines are currently made at Wheeler Farms in St Helena. They are sourced from five single vineyard sites: M-Bar Ranch and Vine Hill Ranch in Oakville, Ecotone, and the former Reverie site on Diamond Mountain, as well as Sleeping Lady Vineyard in Yountville. Click to see full details | |
| La Pelle, Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | This wine has always been a winemaking showcase for Maayan Koschitzky. After 12 months, he blends selections from three single vineyards: Red Hen Vineyard in Oak Knoll, Ceniza Vineyard in Coombsville, and Alluvium Vineyard in Saint Helena. For Maayan, the choice to blend these sites is about elevating the textural of the wine. It is super dark and inky black with violet hues in the glass, building to a powerfully aromatic profile with notes of Bing cherry, black liquorice, blue fruit, and cedarwood spices. This full-bodied wine boasts incredible fruit density, gorgeous black fruit, dried herbs, and graphite minerality, all framed by terrific, juicy acidity. It is bright yet compact, with impressive length. Even as the massive tannins assert themselves, the acidity brightens the palate, making your mouth water and leaving you ready for another sip. Click to see full details | |
| La Pelle, Red Hen Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Red Hen Vineyard is biodynamically farmed on an alluvial fan in the Oak Knoll District. This wine features black cherry fruit and cedarwood spices with a hint of spearmint. It is medium to full-bodied, with intense red fruit on the palate and robust, mature tannins. The wine has plenty of density, extraction, and power, driving its impressive length, but maintains a freshness and is never overbearing. Winemaker Maayan Koschitzky feels this site offers a clear snapshot of the diversity of Napa Valley, wherein the right site can deliver a freshness factor and allowing that to shine is the maker's responsibility. Click to see full details | |
| Lail Vineyards, J. Daniel Cuvée Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | From partners Robin Daniel Lail, Erin Lail, and Shannon Lail, this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from Calistoga, Howell Mountain, Oakville, and Stags Leap District vineyards and aged 20 months in 75% new French oak and crafted by Philippe Melka and Maayan Koschitzky. The appellations shine through in this full-bodied wine. Heimark vineyard grapes from Calistoga deliver plump, juicy, black cherry, blueberry, and blackberry fruits. Stelzner vineyard from Stags Leap District layers in ironstone minerality, which resonates on the nose and palate, laced with Oakville herbs and toasty spices from Vine Hill Ranch, supported by mighty Mole Hill vineyard Howell Mountain tannins that are ripe, assertive, and beautifully pixelated. Notes of rich cedarwood, bitter dark chocolate, and espresso bean round out a balanced expression of Napa Cabernet. Click to see full details | |
| Lokoya, Cabernet Sauvignon, Diamond Mountain | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The Lokoya Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is primarily sourced from two sites: the 6.4ha Wallis Vineyard and Rhyolite Ridge (7.2ha), which are primarily volcanic soils. Winemaker Chris Carpenter says that Diamond Mountain is in the warmest part of Napa Valley's mountain terroirs. The tannins are softer, the pH is a little higher, and the acids are a little more savoury. With the 2021 vintage, Carpenter is right about the tannins being a bit softer, and they are very long. The wine is surprisingly medium-to-full-bodied, with very beautiful aromatics of sandalwood and sage, cherry blossoms and blood orange, and those soft tannins are superfine. Grippy acidity is very savoury, scented with a spicy herbaceousness that carries through a long and extended finish. The wine is so fresh and framed by an expressive vein of crushed stone and red volcanic minerality. Chris Carpenter makes the Lokoya wines, and the label is owned by the Jackson Family. There are four 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the portfolio, each from a different mountain: Diamond Mountain, Howell Mountain, Spring Mountain, and Mt. Veeder. The winemaking is the same for all the wines, with mostly native yeast fermentation, pump-overs by hand, malolactic fermentation in barrel and ageing for 22 months in 90% new French oak. What separates these wines is not style but place. Carpenter believes that fine Napa Valley Cabernet wines are not only defined by the soils of their sites but also by the Bay Area Pacific breezes that roll in and out daily, cooling the valley from the south to the north in the evenings and from the north to the south in the mornings. These mountains define cooling as any place in the valley and the diurnal temperature shifts at higher elevations create an equilibrium where climatic fluctuations aren't as pronounced as fruit grown below the fog lines Click to see full details | |
| Macauley Vineyard, Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The Cabernet Sauvignon fruit harvested from the famous Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville begins with fermentation in open-top 225-litre Taransaud and Darnajou barrels, held in the coolest part of the cellar for cold-soaking for five days and then let them warm up and fermentation kicks off and lasts for 10-12 days. This is a seamless wine from this famous vineyard imbued with a robust tannic structure, a panoply of crunchy redberry fruit, black cherry, and spiced plums with elegant brown spices and crushed wild herbs with rich graphite mineral intensity, long and focused and marked by an excellent freshness factor. I tasted the 2021s with Owner Mac Watson and Kirk Venge. While tasting this, we were commiserating over Mac's desire to barrel ferment in large 600-litre barrels, which gives Venge a bit of a headache. These two long-time friends make excellent wines together. Watson owns no vineyards but has long-term contracts with 14-16 different vineyards, among the absolute best in Napa. Total production is always at most 2,600 cases. Kirk Venge has made the wine since the first vintage. Click to see full details | |
| Opus One, Red Wine, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The 2021 Opus One is a blend of 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot, and half a percent each of Malbec and Merlot. It was aged up to 19 months in 100% new French oak. It's a seamless wine with balletic elegance and grace. From a deep ruby-crimson colour comes heady red and violet floral notes, sandalwood, and rich brown spices nuanced by graphite and dried sagebrush. Medium to full-bodied with ultrafine-grained tannins, almost powdery, with gorgeous cranberry and raspberry fruits and a kind of juicy, woody, crushed pomegranate seed character. You really can't believe how light and ephemeral this wine is. Click to see full details | |
| Outpost, True Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The True Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from Outpost is made from 100% Cabernet grown in their high-elevation estate vineyard on Howell Mountain. Aged 19 months in 90% new French oak barrels and bottled unfined and unfiltered. It is almost impossible to put the glass down as waves of blue fruit aromatics and kirsch entice on the nose, giving way to black pepper, cedar wood and sage. Seamless layers of blue, black, and red fruit meld together as interconnected beams of powerful mountain-made tannins build until meandering streams of lacy acidity revive the palate and make way for a rush of spicy mountain garrigue and volcanic-like mineral tension—a profound wine with just the right amount of seduction to warrant early drinking. Click to see full details | |
| Pas de Cheval, Finale Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from winemaker Maayan Koschitzky comes from a cool site on Howell Mountain with vines rooted in volcanic rock tucked into the forest with good western exposure and ample airflow. Dark berry fruit lifts out of the glass along with cardamom and conifer with rich and elegant cedarwood. Full-bodied with assertive, chewy tannins that have a cocoa nib quality that builds with intensity before resolving, giving way to juicy and expressive black plum, blackberry, black cherry, cassis, black liquorice, and graphite. The finish is long and layered with brown baking spices and earthy spices. Click to see full details | |
| Paul Hobbs, Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard Cabernet, St Helena | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Absolutely seductive, with incredible polish, precision, and opulence. Lead with youthful blue and black fruit aromatics. Full and plush on the palate with chocolaty tannins that are finely grained, imprinted with a palate-saturating richness of sweet, ripe, black cherry, blackberry and plum fruits, nuanced by tobacco, and a distinct earthy and chalky minerality that penetrates the senses from the nose to the finish. Click to see full details | |
| Paul Hobbs, Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard are rooted in Bale loam and clay loamy soils and were planted in 1996. The grapes were hand-sorted while still cold from night harvesting and fermented in small, closed-top stainless steel tanks with native yeasts. After a 5-day cold soak, the grapes spent 34 days macerating with gentle pump-overs and délestage. Spontaneous malolactic fermentation in barrel. Aged 20 months in 86% new French oak from Darnajou, Taransaud, Baron, Boutes, and Leroi. Bottled, unfined, and unfiltered. In 2021, this wine provides a dazzling balancing act, showcasing a bevvy of upfront pleasures backed by remarkable structure, tension, and balance. Fragrant aromas of red and blackberry fruits, dried herbs, cedarwood, and green tobacco find their voice in a medium-bodied palate expression, further lifted by graceful acidity, which layers in tension, balanced by superfine tannins that are so precise and focused, and seamless, they are almost imperceptible. The finish brings dark chocolate and saline minerals to the forefront, as well as lingering spice. Click to see full details | |
| Pulido-Walker, Melanson Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | From 1999 plantings sitting over 410 meters above sea level on Pritchard Hill, adjacent to Colgin Estate, comes this 2021 vintage of Melanson Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from Pulido-Walker. This is a terrifically aromatic and expressive Cabernet, with aromas of dark-toned fruit, bay leaf, tobacco, and cedarwood, with a meandering intensity of liquorice-laced black cherry, dusted with white pepper. Deeply layered and concentrated on the mid-palate, robust tannins frame this red. Still, it's never heavy and remains wholly balanced by rays of acidity through a lens of earthy mineral tension. Click to see full details | |
| Quintessa, Rutherford | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | A compact, coiled-up, polished red. Intensely aromatic and perfumed, it leads with a distinct burst of cast-iron minerality, dusty sage, red and blackberry fruits, and perfumed rose petals. Medium to full-bodied with a dense core of succulent boysenberry fruit, plums, and kirsch, all of which have tremendous staying power matched only by the wine's burly, robust and muscular tannins, which offer a real contrast to the supreme elegance of this wine. More time in the bottle is needed to let these tannins soften. If you open it before 2025, let it breathe several hours ahead of time, perhaps even double-decant it. 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, 2% Carmenère, 1% Merlot, and 1% Petit Verdot aged 22 months in 65% new French oak and 3% terracotta amphora. Click to see full details | |
| Schrader Cellars, CCS Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Schrader Cellars' CCS Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 was sourced from vines planted to a block of Cabernet Clone 4 and has consistently been one of the winery's most coveted blocks. An alluring, floral-driven nose presents a heady mix of red and black-toned fruits, a touch of walnut husk, and pomegranate seeds. The wine is expertly composed on the palate, with super-fine, seamless tannins and gorgeously lacy acidity that winds itself around succulent dark fruit flavours. The perfectly long finish is layered over a core of ironstone minerality. Exceptionally pleasurable to drink, this Cabernet will effortlessly age for several decades in the bottle. Click to see full details | |
| Schrader Cellars, Colesworthy Cabernet Sauvignon, Las Piedras Vineyard, St Helena | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Schrader Cellars' Colesworthy is a selection of their best Cabernet Sauvignon barrels from Las Piedras, and only about 120 cases were made in 2021. I absolutely love the quality of these wines, and the elements of the best blocks shine through here in their opulence. The aromas tease out black and red currant fruit layers, topped with tobacco leaf notes. The palate has a plush, deeply layered black-toned fruit quality, with nuances of earth and brown spices, matched by graphite and tempting sagebrush and sandalwood notes, through a pleasure-packed finish and tasted from magnum. Click to see full details | |
| Schrader Cellars, Old Sparky Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The 2021 Schrader Cellars Old Sparky Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon hails from a tiny vintage crop. A super-expressive nose of blackberry fruit and wild herbs leaps out of the glass with fragrant sandalwood and mocha. Full-bodied, with luscious and succulent black-toned fruits, this red shows satiny, polished tannins framed by a wealth of ironstone mineral notes through an exceptionally long finish nuanced by spicy herbs. Click to see full details | |
| Stone the Crows, Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | From the Three Twins Vineyard, a fantastic hillside site about a mile uphill from the BOND Melbury property. Full-bodied, supple, and decadent with an almost Right Bank-like burst of red and black cherries complemented by sagebrush and ironstone minerals. The wine has impressive depth and richness, showing blackberry liqueur-like flavours nuanced by expressive cedarwood. Super-refined tannins usher the wine to a long and graceful finish. Founding winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown fermented grapes in stainless tanks and left them 14-16 days on the skins, with a few days of cold soaking and pump-overs twice daily. Aged 20 months in 80% new Darnajou, Remond, and La Grange barrels and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Click to see full details | |
| The Debate, Harbison Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Jean Hoefliger, who also produces wines under the Harbison label, has his choice of select rows of blocks from the Harbison vineyard site, which abuts Screaming Eagle's vineyards in Oakville. The bouquet is immediately and obviously Oakville with its rich and refreshing wild herb notes and ironstone volcanic mineral elements. Stunningly pure dark berry fruits, red currants and cassis, graphite and sagebrush, fragrant bay laurel and blood orange citrus, and a finish that goes on for days marked by a beautiful lingering mineral quality. The tannins are precise, sculpted, and built on the finish but never overpower the expressive fruit and savoury spices. Click to see full details | |
| TOR Wines, Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard BFD Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | TOR winemaker Jeff Ames blends Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from three blocks in the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard for this 'BFD' red: B Block, the oldest of the blocks, D block, which is the last of Clone 6 Cabernet planted on the site, and F Block, the furthest west toward the base of the Mayacamas. Wonderfully savoury like the best wines of the low-yielding 2021 vintage, it leads with red currants, cigar box, sage, sandalwood, and elegant red perfumed notes on the nose. Medium-bodied, this Cabernet shows super-fine, elegant tannins. More red currant and black cherry fruit on the palate is interlaced with crushed stone minerals, expressive bay laurel and scrub brush, all building to a richly earthy finish. This is a marvel of wine, and while it is reticent in its youth (and might remain so for the next decade), it's built for long-term cellaring. Click to see full details | |
| TOR Wines, Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The classic rendition of Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from TOR Wines comes entirely from the F Block planted on the Oakville site. It's the block furthest west near the more undulating foothills of the Mayacamas. Aged 18 months in French oak. It is super fragrant, with complex aromas that are so intriguing you could just nose the glass for hours. Easily one of the darkest-fruited wines of TOR's 2021 lineup, leading with black cherry, blackberry, and excellent toasty cedarwood laced with brown baking spices, vanilla bean, and cocoa nib aromatics. All of that aromatic character shows on the medium-bodied palate, with a purity of ripe fruit framed by crisp, finely-tuned tannins and a lively, measurable thread of volcanic, red rock minerality. Long and laser-focused, with a firm backbone of racy acidity. Click to see full details | |
| TOR Wines, Melanson Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | From the Melanson Vineyard, a steep site situated very close to Colgin on Napa Valley's famed Pritchard Hill, this wine was aged 18 months in French oak. The bouquet comprises enticing aromas of kirsch, toffee spices, fragrant conifer notes, and bright Indian spices. The wine is medium to full-bodied with silken, succulent blackberry and black cherry fruits, a rich thread of mocha spices and blood orange, and an extended finish of expressive saline minerality. That finish is epic, lasting for a full 60 seconds before fading gracefully. Click to see full details | |
| Tres Perlas, The Barber Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon "The Barber" is from an iconic vineyard in Oakville. The name refers to Salvador Renteria, the patriarch of the Renteria family, who came to Napa from Jalisco, Mexico, in 1962 and worked as a barber. Similarly, this is a clean-cut and stylish wine endowed with structure. It leads with ripe, dark berry fruits, savoury herbs, brown baking spices, and perfectly integrated fine-grained tannins. There's a bold upfront ripeness balanced by serious structure. This is one of the most serious wines I tasted from Kirk Venge in all of his 2021 vintage wines. It's complex, layered, and of exceptional pedigree. Tres Perlas refers to owners Oscar and Denise Renteria's three daughters, Isabella, Mia, and Gabriella. The brand, formerly Renteria, was established in 1997. Click to see full details | |
| Vice Versa, Beckstoffer Dr. Crane Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, St Helena | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | The 2021 Vice Versa Beckstoffer Dr Crane Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced mainly from three blocks, each fermented separately and blended later, aged 21 months in 70% new French oak. Now, this is a wine. It has excellent grip, remarkable depth of minerality, and the most refined aromatics of Vice Versa's 2021 lineup. Gorgeous floral and mineral notes emerge on a very seductive nose, filled with dark berry fruit and a hint of charcuterie. Suave, plush, figgy fruit flavours sit above beautifully intricate tannins with a granular but polished quality. Long and lean with saline minerals on the palate, enhanced by sultry cedarwood and mocha notes, this is a precise, focused and remarkably refined Napa Cabernet. Click to see full details | |
| Vice Versa, The Magnificent Seven | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | First produced in 2014, just three barrels of Vice Versa's "The Magnificent Seven" Cabernet Sauvignon (named after a song by The Clash) were made in 2021, sourced from various top-tier Napa Valley sites. This stellar red opens with a complex nose of iron and graphite, grilled herbs, crushed cocoa nibs, sagebrush and spearmint. The palate is marked by an interplay of freshness and energy, tension and clarity, with a medium to full-bodied feel and flavours of blackberry, cassis, liquorice, and nuances of red volcanic minerals. Gorgeous, sculpted, and fine-grained tannins lock in with a remarkable spine of electric acidity to provide structure, and more dried herbs and florals fuel the long finish. Click to see full details | |
| Vine Hill Ranch, Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | A fabulously classic and tightly knit Cabernet. Expressive bouquet of black cherry fruit, sandalwood, sagebrush, and graphite notes. Laser focused on the palate with pure red and black-toned fruit laced with tobacco. Beautifully sculpted tannins are fine-grained and help broaden the palate, and the finish is fueled by classic Oakville iron-like minerality. Crafted by winemaker Françoise Peschon. Click to see full details | |
| Vineyard 7 & 8, Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Spring Mountain | Napa Valley | 2021 | 98 | Vineyard 7 & 8 is a 16-ha estate atop Spring Mountain, with just 3ha of Cabernet Sauvignon and 3ha of Chardonnay planted. Estate Director and Winemaker Wesley Steffens turn out remarkable wines year after year. In 2021, he knocked it out of the park with this extradimensional inky dark, concentrated, stylish Spring Mountain Cab, teeming with pure aromatics of blackberry fruit, creme de cassis, sweet tobacco, mountain garrigue, and fine cedar. Full-bodied with palate-etching superfine tannins that coat the mouth with a dense pixelated feel, framing all this satiny, soft, plump black fruit. Beautifully layered with dark, tilled earth notes, black truffle, and black tea with fragrant crushed cocoa nibs and zesty blood orange acidity. A real standout from the AVA. Double hand sorting, whole berry fermentation, with nearly 50% fermented whole berry, and aged 26 months in 100% new French oak barrels. Click to see full details |