As is the case in any market, wine prices have a way of finding their levels. If you buy a lot of wine, you probably have a good idea of what you’re going to pay across different categories. Our job, of course, is to find the anomalies—like today’s structured, soulful Cabernet Sauvignon from a pair of talented artisans in Healdsburg, California. 
The simplest way to present the 2016 Judge Palmer “Vintage Select” Cabernet is to say that, if I were tasting it blind, I’d be expecting to pay $75-$100 for it. Not $42. Further, this wine isn’t simply “a lot” of wine for the money: When it comes to California Cabernet Sauvignon, you can expect full-throttle ripeness and a generous helping of expensive oak at an even lower price point; what’s much harder is finding one that has the kind of mineral, soil-expressive savor that makes it feel not like some lab-engineered “beverage” but like a genuine wine of place. We want to taste that dark, unctuous Cabernet fruit, we want that layered texture, but we want to taste a little of the dirt, too—in this case the gravelly, loamy soils of Sonoma County. Winemakers Palmer Emmitt and Michael Scorsone have given us all that at an uncommonly reasonable price—so yes, of course it’s up here on SommSelect, ready for our savvy subscribers to snatch up. How could it not be?
The 2016 Vintage Select is 90% Cabernet Sauvignon with 5% each Petit Verdot and Malbec, aged 24 months in 30% new French oak. The supporting varieties help land the wine at the darker, meatier end of the flavor spectrum, with a nice core of cassis and graphite summoning memories of serious Left Bank Bordeaux from the likes of Pauillac and Margaux. In the glass, it’s a nearly opaque purple-ruby moving to magenta at the rim, with explosive aromas of blackcurrant, fig, Damson plum, licorice, tobacco, pencil lead, and an assortment of baking spices. It is full-bodied and firmly structured, and while the oak component lends that warm spice note, there’s also a compelling bass note of turned earth, smoke, and crushed gravel. There’s some real tannic backbone and lots of freshness to balance the opulent fruit, and with time in a decanter (30 minutes at least), more of the wine’s earthy savor begins to shine through. It’s delicious to drink now, but I think the real sweet spot for this wine will be a few years from now, and if you can hold out until then, its 10th birthday should be something special. Serve it in Bordeaux stems at 60-65 degrees and let yourself be dazzled by the amount of complexity, refinement, and soul-satisfying power you scored for a little over $40. Alongside a well-charred ribeye, or some short ribs, or even a big-flavor vegetarian option like the attached, this will be lights-out delicious. Enjoy!