2019 Hoopes Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville 750 ml

We're not shy about saying it: Hoopes Vineyard makes some of our favorite Cabernets in Napa Valley. Their flagship bottling is an under-$50 Cab that drinks like it should cost well over $100. But there's an even faster horse in their stable.

Despite our close friendship with Hoopes, their tiny-production Oakville bottling, grown on their precious 10-acre estate next to Oakville’s famed To Kalon Vineyard, took us YEARS to get. When we finally nabbed an allocation, it racked up a 4.60 rating from our members, putting it alongside 100-point wines and $300+ bottles.

Their 2019 Oakville Cabernet was grown in a 2019 vintage that Wine Advocate called “extraordinary,” and it's the first made by renowned winemaker Aaron Pott. It's as good as Oakville gets for under $100.

The Hoopes Oakville Cabernet comes from the site that Lindsay's father Spencer purchased in 1981 and planted in 1983. For 15 years, they sold all their grapes to iconic wineries. In 1999, they started making their own Cabernet, quickly becoming a quality-benchmark.

"This is the wine that smells like home to me," says Lindsay Hoopes, now the "Alpha Dog" of the estate. "This is what Cabernet from Oakville should be." Aged for over two years in 50% new French oak, it's powerful and hedonistic, lush and layered with well-knit tannins.

Oakville is $300 Cabernet country. This bottle shows why, and stands with the giants of Napa Valley.