2017 Ovid Red Wine Napa Valley 750 ml

Mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with touches of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot to round out the blend. The Cabernet Franc lends a savory, herbal note to the nose, alluring you right into the glass.  “Rich, ample and seductive” says Vinous, this is a gorgeously generous wine with dark red fruits and imposing structure all framed with graceful vanilla and cocoa from the time in new French oak.

In 1998, when Mark Nelson and Dana Johnson planted their secluded 15-acre vineyard at 1,400 ft. elevation in the western reaches of Pritchard Hill, they were pioneers. The property boasts some of the most stunning views in all of Napa Valley. From their outpost you can see the fog rolling in over the Mayacamas to the west, and if you look down-valley on a clear day, you can even see San Francisco in the distance. 

But Ovid’s aesthetic charms are not all that make it special. Sitting in the eastern hills of Napa the property is extremely dry, so the grapes achieve tremendous concentration as they struggle in the red, rocky soils. Consisting of just twelve planted acres on one of the most exposed spots on Pritchard Hill, Ovid is bathed in the cool sunlight that grapes love, and that forms thick skins that yield the most beautifully refined tannins imaginable.

No one was quite sure what would become of a small gravity-fed winery designed by Howard Backen (Meadowood) that was producing wines from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot grapes rooted in the rocky red, volcanic soils. But today, given that Ovid is a household name among serious collectors, it’s clear they made good choices.

When Robert Parker had his first look at the wines of Ovid, he noted, it comes “from one of my favorite sites in Napa Valley, Pritchard Hill.” Parker tasted three wines from the 2006 vintage, and commented, “this trio lived up to my lofty expectations.” Parker’s review set a high bar, and year over year, Ovid continues to raise it.

In 2017, when Wine Spectator broke the news that David Duncan and Jack Bittner had taken on stewardship of Ovid over a handshake deal, we knew that the future of Ovid was bright. After all, the former owners, Mark Nelson and Dana Johnson, are longtime friends of David and Jack and they all share the same dedication to precision winemaking.

Originally planted by David Abreu, Ovid's organically farmed vineyard is divided into 15 blocks, which allows winemaker Austin Peterson to decide how to manage the canopy, how to employ shade cloth, and when to pick, all based on the specific needs of minute parcels of grapes. After harvest, the grapes are fermented using only native yeasts (largely in exquisite built-in-place concrete fermenters) and bottled without fining or filtration.