2016 Modus Operandi Vicarious Red Wine Napa Valley 750 ml

Jeb Dunnuck calls it “seamless” and “brilliant.” Winemaker Jason Moore calls it “high-impact and crowd pleasing.” But the dark, dense, and polished 2016 Modus Operandi Vicarious Red Wine Napa Valley might be summed up best by one Modus Operandi mailing list member: Around his house, Vicarious is simply “The Prisoner Killer.” 

We’ve known Jason since before his wine was served at a White House state dinner, and before Jeb Dunnuck and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate started lavishing 97-point scores on his $250 Cabernets—that’s how we scored an exclusive on this winery-only micro-production red. It’s composed mainly from Cabernet from the same source as Jason’s highest-priced reds, and its 94-point score from Dunnuck puts it alongside and above similar Napa red blends that go for 4X the price—and more.

Pouring opaque purple into a Riedel Bordeaux stem, Vicarious is laden with black currant, plum, and black cherry, with lingering dark chocolate and exotic spices. With a warm and generous palate leading to a long and polished finish, this is a serious Napa Cabernet blend that’s built for early drinking, but has the frame to go a decade in the cellar. 

“Modus operandi” means “method of operation,” a perfect name for a winemaker who’s always done things his way. As a blue-collar teenager in Texas, Jason’s work in restaurants kindled his love for wine and sparked his dream to be a winemaker—so when he was in his early twenties, he and his wife held a three-week garage sale, then relocated to California. 

Once they made it, Jason skipped UC Davis for a hands-on education, which started when an elderly vineyard owner gave him grapes and a garage to work in, as long as he split the finished wine 50-50. “That was my classroom,” Jason told us over a big glass of Vicarious on a chilly winter day in Napa. “I had no one over my shoulder telling me what to do.”

But he did manage to find support. “When I had questions about what I was doing, I’d put emails together to my winemaking mentors. And no two answers were the same,” he said. By weighing the advice of his mentors—a group that included Michael Havens, Kirk Venge (Bacio Divino, Janzen, B Cellars), Bob Foley (Pride), and Mark Porembski (Zeitgeist)— Jason found his own modus operandi. 

Vicarious debuted in 2005, and while the blend might change from year to year, the philosophy doesn’t. It’s a Cabernet-based blend that Cabernet lovers wouldn’t bat an eye at if it were twice the price. In fact, the Cabernet and Merlot, which make up 80% of the blend, are sourced from the 11-acre Rocca-Collinetta Vineyard in Coombsville and the Boyd Vineyard in Oak Knoll, which supply Jason’s triple-digit-priced wines. 

Jason named this wine “Vicarious” because he wants everyone who drinks it to feel his passion for winemaking—and every sip delivers. Bottled unfined and unfiltered after 22 months in 65% new French oak, you can cellar this wine, but it’s ready to be enjoyed at a moment’s notice—on a weeknight, by the fire, with a sizzling ribeye, or on its own. As Jason says (in his slight Texas drawl) about the wine that he drinks every night at home: “It’ll put a smile on your face, man.”