2022 Westerly Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve Spring Mountain Napa Valley 750 ml

The upper part of Spring Mountain is some of Napa’s most epic terroir.

Steep, with crumbly volcanic soils, these slopes are host to legendary names like Pride, Lokoya, Keenan, and Paloma. The going rate for the neighborhood starts at $90 and climbs high into the $200+ range.

So when winemaker Etienne Terlinden had a chance at prime Cabernet grapes from a coveted site just below Pride, he got straight into his car and didn’t stop until he was at the vineyard gates. It came with NDA-strings attached, of course, but months later—after a warm harvest that delivered bold, ripe flavors—Etienne was rewarded with a classic Spring Mountain wine.

In the spring of 2022—the waxing days of a vintage that would turn out to deliver unprecedented warmth during harvest—Etienne Terlinden hopped in his car and sped about 350 miles north to Napa Valley. 

The draw? Cabernet from one of the finest vineyards in the area. Terlinden, an accomplished winemaker who typically toils in Santa Barbara’s Cabernet hotbed of Happy Canyon, had received a text from a winegrower friend about a special find on Spring Mountain—located just below Pride and above Keenan, with Lokoya in the neighborhood. A drive and a handshake later, the deal was done. 

When fall arrived, Napa was treated to one of its most dramatic harvests in decades. A massive heat spike hit around Labor Day, pushing vineyards that had been on the precipice of readiness into a flurry of furious picking. But for later-ripening sites—like those high on Spring Mountain—the brief burst of heat was the catalyst into a warm, even fall that produced dramatic, full-bodied wines.