2016 Karo-Kann Proprietary Red Napa Valley 750 ml

The components for this wine come from some of the top vineyards in Napa—including exclusive sources in Oakville, Rutherford, and Stags Leap—where proprietary reds start at four times the price of Karo-Kann. But today you can taste the structure and age-worthiness of such pedigreed sites in a blend that will shift your mindset without shifting your spending.

The character of the wine is as winning and instantaneously appealing as you’d expect from America’s most famous wine region. Crafted from a bravely original blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Petit Verdot, 22% Petite Sirah, and 1% Merlot, the 2016 Karo-Kann Proprietary Red will make you wonder why more producers aren’t leveraging blends like this more often. The inimitably juicy quality to the fruit and the lifted spice tones from the high proportion of Petit Verdot and Petite Sirah set this red apart, and make it just as appealing to open right now as it will be in another five years.

You might wonder how we’re able to offer Napa wines like Karo-Kann for as low as $15 on cases, and the answer is simple: We have been building relationships with the best growers to defy Napa’s high-priced norm, which allows us to offer wines like this paradigm-shifting beauty that would otherwise cost $65 or more—an inky, purple-black wine bursting with blackberry preserves, sage, and vanilla atop a silky-smooth texture—for $20 or less. 

The Cab that forms the backbone of this red comes from a perfectly elevated vineyard (more than 1,000 feet above sea level in some places) nestled near the Vaca Mountains in the Chiles Valley District AVA, a rugged, rocky subregion of Napa Valley that wine pros can’t stop talking about right now. During the growing season, the days are hot, which gives the Karo-Kann its rich, dark flavors. 

That Cabernet is blended with exquisite Bordeaux varieties from a Stags Leap District estate that has been an icon in Napa for forty years. The site benefits from exactly what makes the region so special: heat collected by the palisades above warm the vines, and breezes from San Pablo Bay, which cool them efficiently at night, striking the balance between strength and grace that is a hallmark of Stags Leap—where wines normally command prices north of $75. 

Together, the blend is far more than the sum of its parts. Plus it’s from 2016, a vintage that Wine Spectator, Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, and Vinous all praised in Napa. The Advocate gushed, “2016 was not just a great year for Napa Cabernet Sauvignon; there are many amazing Cabernet Francs and Merlots to be found too,” though Vinous may have said it best, calling the year a “captivating vintage from top to bottom.”

In that regard, the 2016 Proprietary Red is a pitch-perfect evocation of the vintage. The 2016 Karo-Kann Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley—a Wine Access exclusive—is a pristine reflection of the wine that can be crafted when the best vineyard sites combine with a nearly flawless vintage. The blackberry and mulberry fruit here is generous and demands attention right away, but beneath all of that is a delicious savory undertow. Aging in French oak for 22 months, and nearly four years in bottle has softened this wine, leaving the palate decorated with hints of toasty oak spice, which harmonize perfectly with the café mocha and chocolate that linger through the finish.

Simply put, this is the kind of wine that lingers just as long in memory as it does on the palate.