2021 Good Decisions Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Napa Valley 750 ml

It’s $200, and it’s one of the most famous Cabernet/Cab Franc blends in Napa Valley. 

The winemaker is a friend-of-a-friend who, in the spectacular 2021 season, went with the zeitgeist and upped the proportion of Cabernet Franc in his proprietary red—and crafted one of the finest bottles of his career. 

That move freed up six barrels of PRIME Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon. We’re not talking any old Napa Valley Cabernet. We’re not even talking your average Oakville Cabernet. This is A-grade juice, grown near the intersection of Silverado Trail and Oakville Crossroad, that one minute was bound for a big-money blend. The next, we were tasting it out of barrel, checkbook in hand. 

Here’s how one of Napa Valley’s greatest proprietary reds is assembled.

First, the estate meticulously grows, harvests, sorts, and judges the fruit from their 50 acres. Their Cabernet Franc is top-notch, always has been, ever since before most US wine lovers had even heard of the grape. Ditto their estate-raised Cabernet Sauvignon, which boasts the sturdy backbone that typifies Howell Mountain’s ageless icons.

With the red fruit and herbaceousness delivered by their own Franc, with the black-fruited sturdiness supplied by their own Cabernet, they rely on sources on the Valley floor to supply supple, warm-fruited Cabernet Sauvignon to round out the blend. And they don’t look just anywhere. 

One of their most reliable sites sits at the nexus of Oakville Cross and Silverado Trail, near Tench, Screaming Eagle, Rudd, Tierra Roja, and other great sites. This is Cabernet’s promised land, and by the grace of the winemaking gods, from it were delivered six barrels into our waiting hands. We were happy to take it from there.