2017 Riverain Cabernet Sauvignon Tench Vineyard Oakville Napa Valley 750 ml

Collectors, this is the moment to snap up a real gem for your cellar, a complex and generous achievement from the Midas-like Thomas Rivers Brown that will reward you for the next 15-20 years. Dunnuck calls it “concentrated and textured,” and “a straight-up brilliant Cabernet.”

One look at our chart above will explain what a special deal Riverain’s 2017 Cabernet is, and we have it straight from their cellar with shipping included on all orders.

We are nothing short of thrilled to be able to offer this wine to our members. Only 320 cases were produced, and thanks to our long-standing relationship and a lot of persistence, proprietor Dean Gray agreed to grant Wine Access Cabernet devotees a small allocation in our first-ever offer from Riverain. 

We’ve known Dean and Lorie Gray, two thirds of the ownership at Riverain, for years, but we hadn't had a chance to try the recent vintages. During the Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch WineaPAWlooza auction last summer we finally had the good fortune to enjoy it in the company of wine celebrities like Andy Beckstoffer, Fritz Hatton, and Maayan Koschitzky. It was clear to us that this is hands-down one of Thomas Rivers Brown's best efforts, from a celebrated vineyard in the heart of Oakville. 

The craftsman behind this Cabernet, Thomas Rivers Brown, is one of the most important figures in Napa today. Food & Wine magazine’s 2010 Winemaker of the Year, he was the first American winemaker to earn a 100-point score from Wine Spectator (and the youngest to score two from Robert Parker). He’s one of those people who just seems to get more done in a day than the rest of us. Even though he only takes on a fraction of the clients who seek his services, he has a hand in more top California projects than anyone we know.

An early friendship with Fred Schrader led to Brown’s involvement at that address for decades. He was also assistant winemaker at Turley, consultant at Maybach, and now oversees vinification at about a dozen producers, including Revana and Kinsella. As in-demand as it gets, Brown only takes on clients with outstanding vineyards to work with, telling Wine Spectator that “if you harvest B+ grapes, you’ll get B+ wines.”

The Tench Vineyard is certainly A+. A direct neighbor to Screaming Eagle, it has been in the Tench family since the ‘60s and lies at the juncture of Oakville Crossroad and the Silverado Trail. Composed of red, iron-rich volcanic soil that has been weathered off the bedrock over thousands of years, it is quite rocky and offers the vines excellent drainage. 

The prime Cabernet that Riverain gets from Tench is just right for Brown’s style, where the name of the game is complexity, generosity, and grace. Steve Nordhoff, the third proprietor at Riverain, explained to us that they like to do less de-leafing for their Cabernet than many folks do, allowing the grapes to ripen more slowly and build up complexity over longer hang time. Manual harvest and wild-yeast fermentation bring out the best in the fermenting juice. After 20 months in French barriques, the wine is bottled without fining or filtration, preserving all the rich depth and nuance that this grade-A site gives to the grapes.

Known for his nuanced touch at incorporating the toasty depth offered by barrel aging, Brown routinely delivers some of the most velvety textures and gentle tannins we experience from Napa, and this is a textbook example. The 2017s are just starting to hit the market now, and this kind of release pricing won’t be around long. This is a triumph by Thomas Rivers Brown, at one of the best prices you’ll find.