2022 Myriad Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard Napa Valley 750 ml

His name is low-profile. His accomplishments are anything but. 

Mike Smith is one of the Cabernet greats of Napa Valley. He’s earned twelve 100-point scores from Jeb Dunnuck and Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, twice winning the most 100-point scores from Wine Advocate in a single vintage. With his Myriad Cellars wines, he taps the absolute finest vineyards in Napa Valley. 

The 2022 Beckstoffer Vineyard Georges III Cabernet hails from what’s been one of the finest winegrowing sites in California for more than a century. Situated on the eastern edge of Napa Valley’s Rutherford AVA, it was originally part of a gift given to Elizabeth Rutherford by her grandfather, early Napa Valley settler George Yount. The first vines were planted by Rutherford in 1895, and the plot became known as Beaulieu Vineyard Number 3 after BV founder Georges de Latour purchased it, in 1928.

For the next six decades, the 300-acre parcel was home to the BV wines crafted by André Tchelistcheff, which established Napa Valley Cabernet as some of the finest in the world. Beckstoffer Vineyards, Napa Valley’s preeminent grower, purchased the site in 1988, and it now comprises 251 planted acres of Cabernet Sauvignon. More than two-thirds of Georges III is under a land-conservation easement that forever prohibits non-agricultural development, meaning it will always be one of Napa Valley’s finest parcels for growing Cabernet Sauvignon.

This 2022 shows all the glory of a historic site and a great vintage, plus Mike’s outstanding acumen. For anyone seeking a true Napa Valley collectible, it’s a gorgeous pick.