2019 Karo-Kann Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Napa Valley 750 ml

This time was a little different. 

In the private-label game, we often get wines in barrel—or in the case of a great vineyard hook-up, sometimes just the grapes themselves. But this time, we got what are known as “shiners” in industry parlance: fully finished bottles that have not yet been labeled. 

The source estate is a Napa powerhouse that sells $250 collectibles. The haul is an exclusive 2019 Reserve Cabernet, taken from vineyard block to bottle by a 100-point winemaker. It was all set to be a private label—probably for a nationally renowned steakhouse, though we can’t say what we know—the kind of wine that money managers expense at $50 a glass without a second thought.

For reasons we can’t get into here, that never happened. The winery’s national sales manager texted us with word of the stranded cases, and we made an offer. With our crack logistics team and nimble supply chain, we could take custody of the allocation and sell it nationally in under a week.

This wine shows off the heralded 2019 Napa vintage, with fabulous boldness and richness born of the year’s tiny berries and higher skin-to-juice ratios. Completely made and finished at the winery, it’s chock-full of blackberry, blackcurrant, and juicy ripe plum, wrapped up in long velvety tannins and toasty oak. 

As this was likely meant to be on a private label to be poured on-premise for top customers and their guests, there’s no “retail price” to compare our deal to. But we’d peg it into the three-figure range, given the pedigree of the estate and winemaker.