2020 River & Vine Cabernet Sauvignon Private Reserve Napa Valley 750 ml

Not every vendor tasting at Cole’s Chop House in Napa starts with such intrigue. But when we arrived, our connection already had Peter Michael’s L’Après-Midi Sauvignon Blanc open, plus a couple of dishes of Cole’s famous Gulf Shrimp cocktail on the table. Just a few minutes before a tomahawk ribeye arrived, today’s wine materialized in a crystal decanter. 

“We’re doing this one blind,” she said. We set to work with little idea what was in store. 

The first taste revealed a rollicking, rich, and earthy Cabernet Sauvignon with the kind of midpalate density that merits a triple-digit price, so naturally we assumed that mystery decanter contained one of the prestigious, $100+ Napa Cabernets in her portfolio. But that quickly draining vessel turned out to be full with one of the greatest Cabernet deals of this young year—and we claimed every single bottle we could. 

Don’t hit us up for all the details: The non-disclosure agreement for this wine is thick and buttoned up as tight as we’ve ever seen, and we weren’t able to pry too much out of our connection. About all we can tell you (and all she told us) is that the wine comes from 21-year old vines from a more than 100-year-old winery—whose Cabernets routinely sell for $100 and up—not far from Chateau Montelena in Calistoga. That is prime Cabernet country, and this is the kind of bottle you’d expect to pay four times as much for.