2022 Wolfe Grade Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

We’ve walked the steep, eastern slopes of the blue-chip Howell Mountain estate where the 2022 Wolfe Grade hails from.

On occasion, we’ve sold single-digit allocations of their coveted wines to private customers who don’t blink at $300+ price tags. So when that 707 number flashed on our phone, we figured maybe a few bottles of the famous proprietary blend, a hit for over three decades, had escaped from the mailing list.

The last thing we expected to be talking about was NDAs.

“Liquid cashmere” is the phrase you most commonly hear associated with the Cabernet Sauvignons from this historic Napa house. That characteristic lushness is the product of meticulous hand farming, top-flight oak cooperage, and the kind of rocky, volcanic terroir that simply doesn’t go up for sale in Napa anymore. None of that comes cheap.

So we were all ears. A new vineyard at the estate had recently come online. The early results were stunning, but the winemaking team decided to wait another vintage before incorporating the new vineyard’s harvest into one of the main blends. To help defray costs, they were looking to sell a portion of the young vineyard’s 2022 juice to someone with access to a bottling line, warehouses, and a reputation for discretion. Well, that rings a bell.

Our negotiations landed us a couple hundred bottles at a phenomenal price—a deal unheard of from an estate of this caliber. Full-bodied and rich on the palate, with ripe tannins and fresh acidity married to flavors of ripe black and blue fruit, this is Napa Cabernet custom-made for a New York strip steak, or maybe ratatouille.