2021 Chad Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

Dry from the beginning, 2021 turned out to be a drought year in Napa Valley—but “drought year” is a term that winemakers love to hear. 

A drought often means small, thick-skinned berries of fantastic concentration, and by the end of the growing season—which also enjoyed a mercifully mild summer with only one day reaching 100 degrees—everyone in Napa Valley knew we were in for some spectacular 2021 wines.

But no one was smiling bigger than Chad. 

“See, late in 2020, I started planting seeds,” Chad told us last week at Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Company in St. Helena. “I knew everyone else was trying to make up for the lack of extra fruit that year by getting as much ‘18 and ‘19 juice as they could. But what these young winemakers forget—I mean, I’ve got boots older than some of these guys—is that there’s always another vintage on the horizon. And quite possibly a beautiful one.”

“So I started working the phones. I started at the top of my list, guys I’ve been working with for years—a benchland spot in Oakville, a valley floor site in Rutherford—and worked my way down. If ‘21 turns out to have some normal yields and some good fruit, I told them, I’d take the extra off their hands.” 

“And then…” Chad took a big sip of his steaming dark roast. “2021 turned out to be PHENOMENAL. I mean, it barely even touched 100 in the valley that summer—you know how rare that is these days? Harvest was a cakewalk. And now…” He handed over a bottle of his 2021 Napa Valley Cabernet.

“Now we reap the spoils.”