2021 AXR Winery Proprietary Red Napa Valley 750 ml

Savvy Wine Access members will recognize something we call the “under-the-counter” pour. It’s a wine so delicious for the money, all it does in a tasting lineup is block sales of much more expensive wines. When you’re pushing $195 Cabernets, any good capitalist ain’t gonna pour them alongside the $40 one—that has to stay under the table.

The 2021 AXR Proprietary Red deserves to be called “The MOTHER of All Under-the-Counter Pours.”

Few winemakers in Napa Valley have produced more opulent, hedonistic, 95–100 point wines than Jean Hoefliger. He’s also the guy world-renowned enologist Michel Rolland trusts to make his namesake wine. That speaks volumes.  

It doesn’t happen every day, but stellar Napa Cabernet blends can—and do—come with reasonable price tags. Massive credit, of course, belongs to Hoefliger, the globe-hopping talent with a delightfully dirty sense of humor that somehow accompanies his Swiss winemaking precision. After getting a viticultural degree in Switzerland, Hoefliger did formative stints in Bordeaux at Château Carbonnieux and Château Lynch-Bages. 

He then turned his focus to the New World, where he has made two perfect-score wines under The Debate label, another at Alpha Omega, and a slew of impressive ones for Newton as well. 

Hoefliger could not make a boring wine if he tried. His bottlings are always packed with incredibly pure, rich fruit, which is why our wine team hollered a unanimous and resounding “YES!” on this 2021 Proprietary Red, made from prime sources in Yountville, Coombsville, and Oak Knoll. It's also 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, so legally it could be labeled as such.