Finding inexpensive Napa Cabernet Sauvignon that tastes expensive is not as easy as it may sound. Everything about Napa wine skews pricy these days—the land, the grapes, the barrels, you name it—so what the brother-sister duo at Cultivar Wines achieves with this Napa County bottling is truly remarkable.
I live in Napa and taste a lot of (often very expensive) Napa Cabernets, and I’ll tell you this: After tasting this 2018 blind, I was convinced we were in $75-$100 territory. Cultivar’s Jody Harris and Gingy Harris Gable own a boutique Napa winery called Caspar Estate, but with their Cultivar label they explore beyond their home base in Rutherford to assemble an ever-changing roster of affordable, over-achieving whites and reds at extremely friendly price points. Ably assisted in this endeavor by Bordeaux-trained winemaker Julien Fayard, whose roster of big-name clients continues to grow, the Cultivar team is all about cultivating relationships with great growers—the result being impeccable fruit from the Napa Valley and beyond. In addition to Cultivar’s own wine bar in San Francisco, this wine is found mostly in top restaurants as a showpiece by-the-glass pour. This is one of the few places you’ll see this 2018 at retail, and when we received an allocation it hit me: We offered a spectacular $32 Cabernet from Darms Lane not long ago, and this is a brilliant follow-up. Is $32 the new $75? That would be okay by me!
Whereas Caspar Estate is a 500-case winery that sells mostly via its mailing list, Cultivar has a broader reach. In each case, Fayard oversees the winemaking (and brings a wealth of grower contacts as well), drawing on his experience working with fellow Frenchman Philippe Melka in the Napa Valley. The Cultivar label is a ‘négociant’ model, with some of the vineyard sources changing from year to year, but typically the wine contains a little bit of declassified fruit from Caspar, which is right on Napa’s famed Rutherford Bench. In 2018, which was a generous vintage both quantitatively and qualitatively, Cultivar Sales Director Richard Phoenix described a scenario in which the uncharacteristic abundance of the vintage caused some extremely high-quality Cabernet to become available to them at a much-lower-than-normal price. If it had been the same vineyard in 2016, the wine would have cost much more,” said Phoenix, who wouldn’t name his source—other to say it was at the northern end of the Napa Valley near St. Helena.
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The 2018 was given a “Napa County” designation despite containing 100% Napa Valley fruit—predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon with small amounts of Cabernet Franc and Malbec. It was aged 18 months in 20% new French oak and is a far cry from the jammy, often quite sweet styles of Cabernet that dominate the shelves at this price point. It offers up a touch of dark, loamy earth and graphite along with saturated aromas of black currant, plum, cassis, dark chocolate, violets, and subtle oak spice. Leaning toward purple and color and pleasantly—rather than aggressively—full-bodied, it’s a Napa red to enjoy now and over the next 3-5 years. Decant it 30-45 minutes before serving at 60-65 degrees in Bordeaux stems and sneak it onto the table alongside some pricier competition; it’ll do just fine, believe me. Given their foray into the hospitality business, the Cultivar team is keenly attuned to wines that won’t overpower food, and as I tasted this one I thought of saucy braised short ribs served over polenta. Give the attached recipe a try and enjoy!
