BELLA OAKS recently did a retrospective tasting; starting with the HEITZ 1976 - present vintages and it was mind blowing. Nigel is continuing the legacy of excellence with that vineyard!!
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The old Library Rat is a baller.
I’ve been buying Kinsman since the 2016 vintage, and on a recent trip to Napa, my fiancée and I sat with Nigel and tasted the 2019’s. These are wonderfully made wines that do indeed stand out from the crowd. Their Anjea bottling was notably among the best (the best?) wine that we drank all weekend (Seven Apart, Greer, and Memento Mori being the others) (although that 2018 Memento Mori RTL reserve also left an impression).
Great wines, and with both Nigel and Shae being seemingly great human beings as well, its easy to support their project.
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Great thread here. As some commenters suggested, I’ll break my recommendations out more systematically and give a bit more context/description. (Assuming we’re staying in the sub $350 range and focusing on wines that I think are real values for what they deliver.)
“Classic” style producers with real history, great sites, and an ethereal elegance that is really mesmerizing in Cabernet:
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Grace Family:
I think Grace Family is one of the most under-the-radar producers in all of Napa today. Small production (250 cases, I think) and one of the original cults dating back to the 1970s, still family-owned without all of the commercialization and nearly as much of the price hiking of the other original cults in the last 10 years. Vineyard is just above Colgin Tychson Hill in St Helena. The wines have all of the structure, purity of fruit and freshness of the older cabs from Napa (think 1990s), but with a lovely violet floral, cassis character. These wines are stellar and honestly a real hidden gem at $300/bottle. For all of the pedigree, history and low production, it’s a wonder the owners have kept the price where it is. Feels like a very old-world approach to running a winery. Deep respect for this place and what it’s preserving in Napa. -
Philip Togni:
It’s hard to get more old-school than Togni. The guy is a legend from another era. Mountain wines coming from a producer that makes wines that age. These wines need time to show well, though, so keep that in mind. When we look back at some of the old old-school Napa wines from 50+ years ago, you have to wonder if these wines aren’t exactly what people were doing back then. Formidable tannin, bright brambly fruit, greenness, and laser-like purity. Find some of these on the secondary market with 10+ years of age to see what these wines can do. Definitely a wine to age with real mountain tannin. -
Corison:
Not that Cathy or Kronos need any more ink spilled to validate the legacy here. Cathy is another classic producer, making wines in a consistent style from long before the craze of density hit Napa. Now that the pendulum is swinging back toward balance, it’s great to see producers like Corison getting recognition for sticking to their guns all these years. Great value.
“Modern” with a plush, voluminous style, but short of the weight and sucrosity of the boldest wines from the region:
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Drinkward Peschon:
Francoise Peschon is one of the greats of Napa in the last 20 years, IMO. Unlike so many other consulting winemakers, I actually have a hard time defining her “style” because she is able to achieve such different expressions across her various projects. Drinkward Peschon is her personal label and a great value. It’s a great example of modern balance in Napa: gorgeous fruit balanced by juicy acidity, complex aromatics like fennel, spice and floral notes. -
Eiesele 'Altagracia:
One of the great ‘second wines’ from Napa. Everything you’d want from a great site making a second wine. At ~$100-150 dollars it gives the polish, class, ripe dark fruit and graphite of Eisele, but with just a bit less of the structure, complexity and length of the top wines from this site.
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grace was sold. yes it’s owned by a ‘family’ (not even sure what that means) but the original owners no longer own.
and hidden gem and 300 a btl in the same sentence is a little goofy.
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Great write up and notes. Based on the wines you selected recommending you try Di Costanzo if you haven’t. The approach, wines and people would probably appeal to you. Erin is also terrific to taste with if you get the chance during a visit.
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Grace Family was sold in 2019. I was a big fan of the wines, buying them for more than 30 years. 2013 was the last vintage I purchased, though, as I finally decided paying close to $250 a bottle wasn’t worth it. Now that it apparently is $300 (or more with tax, shipping, etc) it’s an even poorer value. WineBid has a number of Grace bottles this week. A 2013 1 liter, that sold direct from the winery at more than $500, has no bids at $215. Most of the others, including 20+ year old vintages, have reserves below the original offering price.
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Fair points. The winery was sold to another family a few years back. Not necessarily important to what’s in the bottle, but I mention it only because a fair number of storied Napa wineries with a bit of history have sold to corporates of late, and/or once purchased have drastically changed the character of what made the wineries so special in the first place. Anecdotal, but something I appreciate in a valley that is changing ever more rapidly.
On price, Grace is on the more expensive end here at $300, but a good number of wines well north of $400 were mentioned previously (Harlan, Abreu, Eisele, Realm), and all of these producers suffer equally, to some degree, from back vintages selling at a steep discount on the secondary market.
As for Grace as a wine, it’s been a bit since I’ve had the most recent vintages, but it’s one of the top wines that I’ve seen consistently perform in blind tastings of great Napa and Bordeaux over the years. To me, it’s always struck a delicate balance between the silky power that defines the region, with beautiful lift and delicacy that characterizes the great wines of Napa historically. Scott, seems like you have a bit of history with this producer. What drew you to these wines all these years, and what are you drinking now?
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Yes, great love for these wines!
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First, I love Grace wines. To me though, they aren’t “worth it”, at least at the offering price, as this thread asks.
I’ve usually found Grace Cabernets to be a great combination of concentration and elegance. I haven’t tried any bottlings younger than 2013, but thought the wines were remarkably consistent over the first 35 years, especially taking into account vintage variations and maybe half a dozen different winemakers. We still drink 8-10 bottles a year and have a few more years to go at that rate.
To be fair, I stopped buying other Cabernets, like Shafer Hillside and Spottswoode, around the same time and Maybach a year or two later. I still buy some Mount Eden, Ridge, and a couple of mailing list only wines but even those purchases are tapering off. Today we’re focused on reducing the number of bottles in the cellar and our Cab consumption is all over the Napa spectrum, from the more classic producers like Dunn and Grace to the more modern, like Bond and Maybach.