2016 Groth Vineyards & Winery Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville 750 ml

Groth was the first winery to craft a Napa Cabernet that scored a perfect 100 points from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. And today's 2016 Reserve Cabernet shows that the iconic Oakville winery has not lost a step since they redefined Napa Cabernet excellence four decades ago. We’re thrilled to share a small allocation of this defining Napa Cab with Wine Access members direct from their Oakville headquarters.

Complex, layered, and towering, this majestic Oakville Cabernet came in at #4 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 of 2019, and earned a 96-point score that puts it alongside $400+ wines from cult labels like Lokoya and Colgin. For a third of the price, this is a Napa Valley icon that still packs the same impeccable quality that delivered the region its first perfect 100.

The painstaking treatment of the Reserve Cabernet begins in the vineyard, and yields a beguiling wine from start to finish. Freshly-picked blackberry, cassis, and cocoa waft from the glass, enveloping the senses. As we tasted, the wine’s silken, fruit- and spice-dominated palate drowned out the office banter, the passing cars, the whirring copier, everything. For those few moments, it was just us and the Groth, in a world built entirely from its powerful flavors. Wine Enthusiast was as impressed as we were, crowning this Cab with Cellar Selection honors, and praising the 2016’s “graceful, firm tannins.” 

A vineyard selection from their Oakville estate vineyard, the 2016 is grown on Yolo loam and gravel soil, where Cabernet clones 7, 15, and 337 are thinned three times—once before veraison and twice after. The Cabernet clusters are selected in the field, harvested at night to preserve acidity, and hand-sorted at the winery. After they’re destemmed, the grapes are mechanically sorted to make sure only the best berries make it into the tank. 

The white-glove treatment extends through Groth’s custom cellar: Fermentation takes place in small, temperature-controlled stainless steel vessels, before the wine moves to 100% new French oak in Groth’s dedicated two-level Reserve barrel room. The lots age separately for eight months, then the wine is blended (it’s supplemented with 9% Merlot from Groth’s Hillview Vineyard) and aged another 14 months.

In 1981, Dennis and Judy Groth purchased their Oakville property, with an eye on retiring in Napa Valley after years in Santa Clara Valley (now better-known as Silicon Valley). The estate had some vines that had been planted in the early ‘70s by Justin Meyer of Silver Oak, and the Groths decided to expand the vineyard, thinking they’d sell the grapes. When that option turned out to be less viable than they expected, they decided to make the wine themselves, and in 1982, they released their first vintage. Not long after, with now-legendary winemaker Nils Venge at the helm, they crafted the historic 1985 Reserve that changed everything.

The names have changed—Dennis and Judy’s daughter Suzanne is now running the winery, and the wines are made by Cameron Parry—but little else has, least of all the quality of the Reserve Cabernet, which is a “vineyard selection” wine: It comes from their Reserve Block in Oakville, which sits on top of an ancient alluvial fan, and comprises fewer than 28 acres of their 165 acres of Napa Valley vineyard land.

Groth not only put California Cabernet in a new class with the first-ever 100-point score, but immediately made a legend out of this spectacular bottling. For years afterward, fans would line up at Groth to claim their share of the newly released Reserve. We’re inviting you to skip the line, while our cases last.