2019 Moundsman Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena Napa Valley 750 ml

We’re not usually dawn-patrol types, but when the incentive is prime $200-per-bottle Napa Cabernet juice that we can offer at a price WAY below that—well, that shrieking 4 a.m. alarm was like music to our ears.

Our early morning chariot to the vineyard behind today’s bottle was a 1996 F-150 with no heat. Our driver was a guy we call the Moundsman, a soil whisperer and Napa Valley veteran who knows where all the bodies are buried, so to speak. 

We prodded the Moundsman to broker us an introduction to one of the most famous vineyards in St. Helena—and we came away with this exclusive 2019 Cab, set aside just for Wine Access members at a stunner of a price.

But why did we have to be up so early?

“Because the vines are still sleeping,” the Moundsman confided as we zoomed along Route 128 in the milky predawn darkness. “Cars, tractors, anything loud and mechanical is prohibited near this vineyard in daylight hours. Only human hands or animals touch the land. I’m telling you, they run the place like it’s 1880.”

The owners of the property are extremely guarded, and the Moundsman is one of the few people they trust. “They’re like Van Goghs of the vineyards,” he said. “You and I look and see rows of plants, they see interlocking patterns of life. They listen to the vines.” Guided by the vineyard team’s light touch, the 2019 harvest yielded stellar fruit. That fruit became the spectacular Cabernet that we—with the Moundsman as our middleman—scored for you today.  

The lesson? Don’t sleep past four if you want to get in on a phenomenal deal like this one.