The Diamond Mountain wine is highly approachable at this stage, sourced from a slightly warmer site and offering a seductive profile of dark chocolate-covered cherry, a touch of muscovado richness, bay laurel, and blue-fruited tones, with cassis and a subtle tobacco nuance. Full-bodied and expansive, it is framed by super-suave, velvety tannins that build through the generous, lingering finish, delivering both immediate appeal and satisfying depth.

There is so much refinement in this wine in 2023. It retains its characteristic power and intensity, yet the tannins are of such immense quality and precision that they gently support and glide the succulent dark fruit across the palate. Throughout, a deep ironstone mineral character shines clearly. On the back end, that expressiveness evolves into notes of loamy earth and wet slate, fuelled by a mix of dark berry fruit and finishing with a distinctly salted stone character that is wholly characteristic of this wine. Winemaker Chris Carpenter explains that La Jota’s wines tend to offer more generous, approachable tannins – making them ideal for restaurant lists. That accessibility, he notes, comes down to thoughtful decisions around clone, rootstock, and site selection (some of the vineyard blocks naturally yield softer, more inviting tannins, as opposed to dense, palate-etching structures; he seeks Cabernet Sauvignon expressions that are powerful and present, yet have a gentler texture). This blend was aged for 22 months in 73% new French oak.

Remarkably fresh and inviting, delivering dazzling concentration across the palate. Before that intensity fully asserts itself, the aromatics unfurl with sumptuous, forest-infused spice of bay laurel, redwood and cedar. A captivating, layered palate shows graphite and salted dark chocolate, deeply rocky and earthy, establishing a superb mineral foundation for all this pristine, juicy dark fruit to wash over.

The incredible 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Horse Heaven Hills is from the Phinney and
Andrews vineyards, Andrews contributing massive tannins, while Phinney offers more
aroma and flavor. This is a great wine, lovely in rich red cherry-berry flavor with fluffy
tannins and Goldilocks herbaceousness. Medium to full-bodied, it holds its power well,
leading to a long finish of oak spice and more dried herb. Hold and drink 2028–2038.

From a site near Staglin on the western side of Rutherford that gets lots of afternoon shade, the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Sycamore Vineyard is based on 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot, and 2% Cabernet Franc and aged 19 months in 63% new French oak. First made in 1982, this cuvée offers ripe blue and black fruits intermixed with cedarwood, California bay, violets, and graphite, and it's another concentrated, medium to full-bodied, sensationally pure 2023 from winemaker Kristy Melton. It deserves 4-5 years if you can wait and is another 30-year wine in the lineup. There are 1,132 cases produced. Drink 2028-2055.

Based on 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Merlot aged 19 months in 65% new French oak,
the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosché Vineyard comes from a site on the western
benchlands in Rutherford behind Grgich Hills. It's inky purple-hued and offers a brilliant
perfume of ripe blue fruits, crushed stone, freshly sharpened pencil, and cassis. This
powerful, full-bodied, incredibly pure 2023 has building tannins and a great finish. It will be
a 30+ year wine and is up there with the crème de la crème of the vintage. Hide bottles for
4-6 years if you can. There are roughly 1,258 cases produced. Drink 2029-205

Another serious, structured wine, the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder reveals black and blue fruits, sappy herbs, violets, flowers, and graphite. Based on 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and aged in 75% new oak, it's full-bodied, with a pure, focused mouthfeel, lots of tannins, and a seriously long finish. It has everything you'd expect from a brilliant mountain wine. There are 846 cases produced. Hide bottles for 7-8 years, and it will keep for 50 years. Drink 2032-2075.

Coming from a single site on Howell Mountain, the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is another sensational, pure, heavenly wine from Chris that sports a deep purple hue as well as textbook aromatics of freshly sharpened pencil, crushed stone, liquid violets, and assorted red, black, and blue fruits on the nose. Based on 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and aged in 80% new oak, it's full-bodied, with a deep, rich, layered mouthfeel, lots of ripe tannins, and a stunning finish. It's a mountain wine that needs 4-5 years of bottle age and will keep for 30, 40, if not 50 years. There are 969 cases produced. Drink 2029-2075.

Spicy red and black fruits, smoked tobacco, chocolate, and savory flower notes all emerge
from the 2023 Red Wine, a blend of 61% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12.5% Malbec,
7% Cabernet Franc, and 6.5% Petit Verdot aged in 68% new oak. It's ripe and concentrated,
with a deep, layered mid-palate, velvety tannins, and a gorgeous finish. It's another
sensational wine from winemaker Chris Carpenter that will keep for 30 years. There are 370
cases produced. Drink 2030-2055.

The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is the most obvious wine in this range, but it is also among the most elegant, polished and translucent. Crushed rose petal, bright redtoned fruit, chalk, mint, iron and white pepper are all beautifully delineated in this sculpted, taut, young Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It demands patience. What a wine.

The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain is laced with graphite, cloves, lavender, licorice, pencil shavings and crème de cassis. There's gorgeous depth and vertical intensity here. A wine of nearly indescribable beauty, the 2023 is pure and total seduction. It's another stellar effort from Chris Carpenter.

2021 was a lauded vintage in South Australia. It was long, mild and dry during the growing
season and well set up with healthy yields due to favorable conditions during flowering in
the spring of 2020. Here, the 2021 High Sands Grenache is just starting to emerge from its
shell—the tannins that wrap around the fruit are layered with graphite and dusted licorice,
dried rose petals and paprika dolce. The fruit is pure and speaks of soft black cherry and
pomegranate. This is a wine that, in the context of this lineup, has only just emerged from
"inchoate" and will, like the others, have an extraordinarily long life ahead of it.

The Jackson family purchased the Veeder Peak property in 1994, from which the fruit for this Lokoya bottling comes. The 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder offers up fabulous spice notes, ranging from cinnamon and clove to anise and sage, all layered atop a darkfruited base of black cherries and cassis. Full-bodied, concentrated and rich, yet silky smooth, this is tannic but ripe and polished, balanced and long on the finish. Maybe the strongest of the Lokoya bottlings this year?

Sourced entirely from the Jackson Family's Keyes Vineyard, Lokoya's 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain brings an aromatic hint of fir to its core of blueberry fruit, then adds a touch of savory mocha. A full-bodied wine, it has a wonderfully creamy, lush texture that envelops its considerable tannins, great concentration and a tremendously long finish. Great stuff, which should drink well for at least a couple of decades.

Beautiful fruit and dark spice flavors enjoy great balance and structure in this linear, almost muscular wine. Wonderful blackberries, black licorice, black cherries, blueberry pie, star anise and nutmeg, along with hints of wood char, tobacco leaves, dried cherries and pomegranates, give amazing complexity. Taut in texture, vertical drive, agile and muscular in fine-grained tannins, yet balanced and elegant. Drinkable now and best from 2032.

There’s an indulgent purity to the cassis fruit here. Scratched leather. Fresh leaf tobacco. Candlewax. Graphite by the nuclear reactor core full. A gloriously exuberant wine but also so cool and composed at the core. I find this fresher than La Muse and just as expressive of its Cabernet Sauvignon identity as Le Désir is of its Cabernet Franc identity. Plump and juicy on the finish. Exquisite. 

The 2022 Pinot Noir Slope displays a deeper, jeweled ruby hue and offers remarkable depth. Aromas of raspberry liqueur, leather, crushed flowers, and grenadine lead into a concentrated, finely structured palate with velvety tannins and mineral persistence. This contemplative, seamless wine unfolds beautifully and leaves a lasting impression. Drink 2026-2045.

 It's hard to pick favorites from this brand's always stellar lineup, but this clonal selection
from Machado Vineyard earns very high marks this vintage. Fascinatingly delicious aroma
of cherry compote, black raspberry sorbet and alluring mint show on the nose. The vibrant
palate is addictively quaffable, throwing cherry candy and spearmint clippings atop a
grippy texture.

The Rockfall is one of the most extreme sites on the Stonestreet mountain estate, between 2,000 and 2,400 feet in elevation. Fully exposed to sun and wind, it’s earned the nickname “the solar panel” from the team. Often the first Cabernet harvested each year, the wine reflects the raw character of the site: wild, rugged, and precise. The aromas are earthy and dusty, layered with ground spices like turmeric, black pepper, and a hint of bay leaf. There’s a sense of plushness, but tension is more prominent on the palate, with notes of plum skin, tart blackberry, and a green, briny edge. A deeply expressive wine that feels ready ten years in, but with plenty of life to be lived.

Another high-elevation vineyard, Christopher’s, sits above 2,400 feet on steep, quartz-laced volcanic soils just above Upper Barn. The 2015 wine exhibits incredible depth and concentration, a trait that seems to be characteristic of the dry vintage. Classic aromas of the variety, such as currants, tobacco, and leather, mix with savoury dried herbs and a stony edge. There's a cooling herbal finish of menthol that carries through the palate, balancing the rich aspect of the wine, which features ripe berries and plums. It's a fantastic wine with an opulent feeling, and after 10 years of ageing in the bottle, truly shows off the potential of mountain Cabernets in Sonoma.

The 2022 Cardinale is impressively built. You have to understand—there was a major heat
event near the end of the growing season. But this wine? It shows none of it. Not even a
whisper. If anything, the tannins are slightly more approachable, a touch more supple—but
they're no less stratospheric than what we've come to expect from this bottling. The real
kicker is the mid-palate density and length. The wine has tremendous persistence, tension,
and detail, with dark berry fruit unfurling in layers—blackberry, black cherry, and
mulberry—woven with perfumed rose petals, violets, white pepper, and underbrush. With
air, blue fruit tones begin to emerge, adding lift and intrigue. There's an impressive balance
of spice, minerality, and tension—rare for this vintage. Hats off. In my tasting with
winemaker Chris Carpenter, we spoke at length about how Lokoya expresses Napa’s
mountain sub-appellations with site-specific clarity. But with Cardinale—the Oakvillebased crown jewel of the Jackson Family portfolio—the philosophy is different: the sum
must be greater than the parts. This is not an estate wine. It is a masterful blend, culled
from multiple appellations—typically three to nine per vintage—crafted for harmony,
complexity, and longevity. In 2022, the blend is 96% Cabernet Sauvignon from Diamond
Mountain, Spring Mountain, Howell Mountain, Mount Veeder, Atlas Peak, Stags Leap,
Rutherford, and St. Helena, with 4% Merlot from the Keyes Estate Vineyard on Howell
Mountain. The wine was aged for 22 months in 81% new French oak.

Cabernet Franc has been made continuously at La Jota since 1976, says winemaker Chris
Carpenter. Due to the wine’s growing popularity, additional Cabernet Franc vines were
planted at both the Keyes and La Jota estate vineyards. The 2022 is utterly gorgeous. Most
of the fruit was already off the vine before the late-season heatwave arrived—and if it
wasn’t, it was in cooler zones anyway, Carpenter notes. The wine is dark-fruited, led by
pure blackberry and black cherry wrapped in tobacco, with stunning herbal and floral
aromatics. The palate is full-bodied and precise, featuring firm, fine-grained mountain
tannins that are both powerful and refined. Layers of black truffle and loamy earth add
intrigue, gliding toward a long, savoury finish of graphite and sagebrush. Tension-filled,
pure-fruited, and thrilling

This Merlot hails from the same block in the W.S. Keyes Vineyard that Tom Rinaldi once
sourced for Duckhorn Merlot in the early days. Winemaker Chris Carpenter has a bold
vision for this wine—he wants it to compete on the world stage with the greats, from
Masseto to Petrus. The Merlot grapes here have thick skins, and Carpenter doesn’t hold
back, blending in 20% Cabernet Sauvignon from the same site to amplify structure and
depth. Native ferments occur in stainless steel, and the wine is aged for 22 months in 77%
new French oak barrels. With pH levels hovering around 3.5–3.6, the wine delivers
freshness and precision. It opens with a rush of juicy mulberry, cherry, blackberry, and
blueberry fruit, all vivid and inviting. Then the tannins emerge—firm, soaring, and intense,
yet polished and poised, providing remarkable structure and length. The acid tension lifts
the palate, keeping the wine bright and energetic, never heavy or lingering too long. It’s a
marvel of balance and power, and one that promises to hit its stride two decades from now.

From the Applejack vineyard, planted on grey clay soils at 300m in Gladysdale in '97 by Ray Guerin. 40% whole bunches and 40% less wine in '24. Darkly fruited and more intense than the '23 with aromas of wild blackberry, raspberry, briar, and just a hint of sous bois. On the palate, this is as concentrated and mouth-filling as the bouquet suggests it will be, culminating with succulent, grippy tannins on the long, tapering finish. It's a touch more 'sauvage' and a little less floral than normal but, even in this warmer vintage, one of Australia's most celebrated pinot noirs is in impressive form.

The 2022 Lokoya Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District is a tour de force, offering a
Latour-like nose of pure cassis, lead pencil shavings, graphite, crushed stone, and new leather. Fullbodied, powerful, and incredibly rich on the palate, this doesn't get much better in the vintage. The tannins are beautifully integrated, and the overall balance and purity are simply awesome. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon spent 22 months in 85% new French oak, and while it's certainly
approachable with a decant, it will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age and keep for 25+ years.