2015 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

Vastly overdelivers on its price point.

They may be Wine Enthusiast’s words, but they’re our mantra. We cross oceans and scour cellars for wines that offer spectacular value for the money, and they often lurk behind labels that our members have never seen.

But sometimes the best values hide behind the biggest names, and that’s exactly what we have in today’s 95-point 2015 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon. The latest release of Heitz’s iconic Cabernet—which has stood as a Napa Valley benchmark for more than half a century—proves that their quality has never been higher than it is right now. 

This 95-point Wine Enthusiast Editors’ Choice, which the magazine gushes “vastly overdelivers on its price point," is an incredible value.

Even if the throwback price isn’t on your mind, one sip of the 2015 Heitz will have you reveling in the glory of old-school Napa Cabernet. It’s got a ruby-red core and bright rim, with Damson plum and strawberry aromas accented by dried flowers, leather, and spice. Deep and structured with layers of tar and tobacco, it’s lively, with a beautiful long finish—a showpiece that’s perfect for the cellar, and ready for early enjoyment.

Heitz was founded in 1961 by Joe and Alice Heitz after they acquired an eight-acre vineyard and winery south of St. Helena. The estate expanded in 1964, and in the 1965 vintage, Joe included fruit from Tom May’s Martha’s Vineyard in the Heitz Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. The following year, Joe cemented Heitz’s place in Napa history by bottling Martha’s Vineyard separately, as the Valley’s first vineyard-labeled Cabernet Sauvignon.

Throughout the years, Heitz’s Napa Valley Cabernet has remained just as iconic as their single-site bottlings. Treated to a painstaking cellar protocol that recalls Brunello di Montalcino as much as California Cabernet, it’s mellowed for four years in new and old French oak vessels that range from Bordeaux-style 225-liter barriques to 12,000-liter casks. After bottling, the wine spends another year in the cellar. That’s why, while most Napa Valley wineries are putting out their 2018 Cabernets, Heitz lovers are savoring the spectacular 2015s. 

If that vintage has been out of your mind for a few years, let us refresh your memory: The 97-point 2015 was the fourth in Napa Valley’s streak of drought vintages, and it’s had few rivals in North Coast history. In that historic vintage, Heitz sourced their Napa Valley Cabernet mainly from two estate sites in St. Helena, the Only One and Spring Valley Vineyards. 

The result, not surprisingly, is one of Wine Enthusiast’s highest-rated Heitz wines ever. It’s a Napa Valley classic Cabernet with a throwback price, and one that might have you wishing that every winery in the world, in terms of quality and price, could deliver like Heitz.