2018 Zo Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Hafner Vineyard Alexander Valley 750 ml

Alexander Valley is home to some of the most precious Cabernet terroir in California. 

Jordan, with their $75+ red-capped classic, anchors the region, along with the winery behind America’s most famous steakhouse wine. And these days, young guns like Jesse Katz are crafting 100-point wines that prove Alexander Valley can hang with the best of Napa. 

The 2018 season not only blessed this prime Cabernet hotbed with one of the greatest harvests of all time—it also gave us one of the best California Cab deals you’ll see: the 2018 Zo Wines Hafner Vineyard.

Grown at the foot of the Mayacamas—just across Sausal Creek from one of the most iconic properties in American wine—it earned a Gold Medal from the San Francisco Chronicle’s Wine Competition, where it matched Napa Valley bigwigs like Silverado and Frank Family in the $55–59 Cabernet category.  

The Hafner Vineyard is a fertile 100-acre Alexander Valley plot that has been growing grapes since the late 1880s, about half of which is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2018 Zo comprises Cab, Malbec, and Petit Verdot from Hafner, as well as a small amount of Merlot from Idylspoke Vineyard in Dry Creek Valley. Winemaker David Eckert fermented the grapes in stainless steel, then transferred the wine to French oak—20% of it new. Aged a year and racked every three months, it was bottled in December 2019. It took gold at the Chronicle competition two years later—and a year after that, we nabbed it for our members.