Napa

98 Points! An absolutely brilliant wine, the 2021 Ontogeny is an appellation blend put together by Bevan, and it's a year-in, year-out incredible value. Competing with wines 2-3 times its price (if not more), it reveals a deep purple hue as well as an exuberant, full-bodied, concentrated style carrying loads of cr me de cassis, tobacco, violets, charcoal, and graphite-like aromas and flavors. Super-rich, opulent, yet flawlessly balanced, with silky tannins, you should buy a case of this if you can. It should have at least 10-15 years of prime drinking. - Jeb Dunnuck

98+ Points! The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is another magical vintage for this cuvée. All Cabernet Sauvignon from hillside vineyards on the eastern side of Stags Leap, it offers a vivid purple hue as well as extraordinary notes of cassis, black raspberries, violets, camphor, and spring flowers, with perfectly integrated background oak. Full-bodied but not massive, it’s flawlessly balanced on the palate and has ultra-fine tannins, a seamless, elegant mouthfeel, and a great, great finish. It’s another 30- to 40-year wine from this incredible team that readers will absolutely love. - Jeb Dunnuck

98 Points! From a single 9-acre parcel, the 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon True Vineyard exhibits extraordinary aromas of acacia flowers and violets along with an irrefutable minerality, an abundance of blueberry and blackberry fruit, outstanding texture, full-bodied richness, great depth, and ripe tannin. This Cabernet will benefit from 4-6 years of cellaring, and should evolve for 40 years. - Robert Parker, robertparker.com

98 Points! A brilliant showing for Christian Moueix’s well-known Napanook Vineyard, the 2001 Dominus is a blend of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc and 10% Petit Verdot. A classic in the making, this is a flawless, seamless example of elegant, complex Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that possesses a Bordeaux-like personality. This gorgeous, sexy, opulent, dense ruby/purple-colored wine reveals sweet caramel, mocha, creme de cassis and kirsch notes intermixed with a hint of espresso roast as well as underbrush. Ripe, long and full-bodied with well-integrated tannin, acidity, alcohol and wood, this prodigious 2001 is drinkable now and over the next 25+ years given this estate’s longevity track record. A virtually perfect wine, it is one of the most complex 2001s at present. - Robert Parker, robertparker.com, 2011

98 Points! The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is showing even better than it did last year, which is not unusual when tasting the wines of Todd Anderson and Mac Sawyer. Dense ruby/purple to the rim, with the classic Pauillac-like nose of creme de cassis, cedar wood, a hint of tobacco leaf, and very subtle smoke, the wine displays charcoal and roasted herbs, full-bodied power, wonderfully sweet tannins, and a long, long finish. This is a 20- to 25-year wine that should just get better and better as it ages, but it is accessible enough to drink now. - Robert Parker, robertparker.com

98+ Points! The famous Bosché Vineyard is a spot in Rutherford composed of gravelly, loamy soil and situated just at the base of the Mayacamas Mountains. A blend of 93.8% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6.2% Merlot, the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Bosché Vineyard was aged 28 months in French oak. This vineyard has turned out many a classic wine capable of lasting 30-40 years, and this 2013 is one of the all-time great Bosché Cabernet Sauvignons. It offers an inky ruby/purple color, a gorgeous nose of graphite, black cherry, wood spice and barbecue notes, enormous body and richness, and a heady, full-bodied, long finish of 50+ seconds with moderately high tannins. This is a great classic from Napa, but not one for drinking over the near-term. Give it 7-8 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 50 years. - Robert Parker Jr., robertparker.com

98 Points! Blackberries, blackcurrants and hints of mint. Full-bodied with very fine, velvety tannins. Turns firm and structured with a fine chewiness and a caressing mouth-feel. Lively, too...Very attractive now, but will be better in four to five years. Try after 2026. - JamesSuckling.com

98 Points! Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon bursts with open-knit, expressive scents of black cherry compote, warm cassis, and cinnamon toast with nuances of clove oil, roses, and dark chocolate. The full-bodied palate is rich, plush, seamless, layered, long, and decadent. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

97 Points! A gorgeous wine from Chris Phelps, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Sleeping Lady Vineyard sports a dense purple hue as well as awesome aromatics of cassis, violets, flowers, and spicy oak. It’s young and unevolved, with medium to full-bodied richness, silky tannins, flawless balance, and a great finish. It ranks with the finest wines I’ve tasted from this vineyard. All Cabernet aged 20 months in 70% new French oak, it has two decades or more of prime drinking ahead of it. - Jeb Dunnuck

99 Points! The 2018 Pym-Rae can be thought of as a hypothetical mix of the 2016 and 2017, with more sexiness and opulence than the 2017 and a touch more elegance and precision than the 2016. Wonderful cassis, violets, tobacco, lead pencil, and chocolate notes define this beauty, and it's full-bodied, with a gorgeous sense of elegance and purity, perfect tannins, and an incredible finish. This stunningly majestic, flawlessly balanced Mountain Cabernet already offers pleasure yet will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age, and it should be a 50-year wine. Bravo! - Jeb Dunnuck

$289.98 at checkout, 99 Points! A blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Pritchard Hill is another wonderfully evocative triumph from this family-owned Pitchard Hill pioneer. Deep garnet-purple colored, it storms out of the glass with profound scents of crème de cassis, blackberry preserves, licorice and mulberries, plus hints of unsmoked cigars, wild sage and tar. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers fantastic intensity and great poise, offering fine-grained, ripe tannins and bold freshness, finishing long and mineral laced. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, robertparker.com

100 Points! The 2019 Continuum has the highest percentage to date of Cabernet Franc. It is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Cabernet Franc, 7% Petit Verdot, and 6% Merlot, with all the fruit estate grown from Sage Mountain Vineyard on Pritchard Hill and it has a deep garnet-purple color. The nose is closed to begin and needs patience to coax out beautifully pure notes of warm cassis, wild blueberries, chocolate-covered cherries, violets, and iron ore, plus wafts of cinnamon toast, clove oil, and crushed rocks. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is firm, with super-ripe, grainy tannins and fantastic tension framing energetic, tightly knit layers, finishing on a long-lingering ferrous note, plus a spray of rose water and candied violets. Simply stunning! - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent

99 Points! Blackberries, dark wet soil and blackcurrants. Graphite, too. So aromatic. Pure fruit. Full-bodied with superbly polished, fine tannins that draw you down through the center of palate. Extremely layered and the texture is so curated, giving wonderful persistence. Real plushness and fine, velvety texture. 50% cabernet sauvignon, 37% cabernet franc, 7% petit verdot and 6% merlot. Better after 2026. - JamesSuckling.com

98-100 Points! The 2019 J. Daniel Cuvée Cabernet Sauvignon is a barrel sample with a deep garnet-purple color. It needs a little coaxing to unlock pronounced blackcurrant preserves, Black Forest cake and stewed plums scents with hints of star anise, clove oil, unsmoked cigars and tilled soil with a waft of roses. Full-bodied, the palate explodes with vibrant black fruits, framed by wonderfully plush tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and fragrant. Beautiful! - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, robertparker.com

99 Points! Lastly, the 2019 Pure Magic Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard checks in as a blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon from Block 7 and 46% Petit Verdot from Block 3 of this fabulous Oakville vineyard. It has that classic Vine Hill freshness and purity (this is a cooler site in Oakville) in its cassis and almost blue fruits as well as sappy herbs, spring flowers, chalky minerality, and damp earth. I love its pure, vibrant, focused style, and it's full-bodied on the palate, with building yet polished tannins and a great finish. It's a singular wine in the lineup and builds beautifully with air, offering a complex, nuanced, powerful style that will reward 4-5 years of bottle age and cruise for 30+ years if stored properly. - Jeb Dunnuck

98 Points! The 2019 Pure Magic Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard is powerful, dark and intensely savory. A blast of inky dark fruit, scorched earth, tobacco, leather and incense gives this explosive, vibrant Cabernet Sauvignon tons of aromatic complexity and nuance. The 2019 is beautifully perfumed and yet also stunningly deep, a combination that works so well here. The purity here is just striking. Once again, Tor's Cabernet Sauvignon/Petit Verdot from Vine Hill Ranch is lights out. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

98 Points! The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon is the wine that establishes Cornell as a major player in California. The last few vintages provided some clues as to where this wine was going, but the 2018 really crystallizes all of the investment and work that has been done here over the years. Dark, voluptuous and incredibly alluring, the 2018 simply has it all. Black cherry, graphite, leather, menthol and spices are some of the many aromas and flavors that develop with a bit of time in the glass. My only regret is having had to move on to my next appointment, as the 2018 was absolutely riveting when I tasted it last fall. - Vinous