Other than bruising your statements with $300-$900 price tags and representing Napa Cabernet’s cultiest tier, labels like Realm, Scarecrow, Maybach, and Ovid have something else in common: They’re all represented by one person, Kimberly Jones. She’s been their trusted broker for years now, and her deep ties up and down the valley have allowed access to a vast array of Napa Valley’s most expensive vineyards and blue-chip talents. Without them, her private label, Tether, would cease to exist. 

In order to forge today’s incredible Cabernet, she heavily relies on these elite partnerships, and although she must remain tight-lipped about specific fruit sources, it’s rumored that some of the grapes destined for Napa’s most exorbitantly priced labels may be slipping into this $55 bottle! We’ll never know for certain, unless we coax her into an interrogation room, so the next best thing is to pour a glass and decide for yourself. Our verdict? It has the opulence and complex layers to fool anyone into thinking it's 2-3x the price. If you enjoy luxurious Cabernet, Tether’s 2018 release is a case purchase for the ages!

Kimberly’s first vintage, in 2013, was made by esteemed winemaker Benoit Touquette, and their small 168-case bottling sold out instantly. For the 2014 vintage, Kimberly brought on her talented friend Anna Monticelli (Bryant Family, Seavey), to craft a relatively larger production with just over 1000 cases. After earning her degree at UC Davis and studying across Europe, Anna worked her first harvest at Bordeaux’s famous Château Cheval Blanc. She has served as assistant winemaker for Seavey Vineyard as well as Bryant Family Vineyard and is currently the winemaker at Piña in the Napa Valley. She has brought her sharpened skill to Kimberly’s passion project and together they have created $55 magic. 

Tether’s 2018 release is overwhelmingly Cabernet Sauvignon with a 3% splash of Malbec. Although the sources are top-secret, we can tell you that the Cab hails from the prestigious appellations of Oakville and Rutherford, with the Malbec coming from Coombsville. The grapes are all from sustainably farmed vineyards and the soils are predominantly volcanic loam, which lends a hint of soft minerality to the wine. A fifth of the pristine fruit fermented in French oak, the rest in stainless steel vats. Upon completion, the wine was blended and entirely aged in French oak, 50% new. The result is an enchanting expression of modern Napa red with freshness and verve.
 
Tether’s 2018 Cabernet is luxury in a bottle that reveals alternating waves of intensity and elegance after 30 minutes in a decanter. As with any modern style, high-end Napa Cabernet, I recommend enjoying this wine while its vibrant, youthful fruit is still intact—over the next five years—although I anticipate it lasting well past a decade in the cool reaches of a proper cellar. In the glass, it displays an opaque purple-ruby core with bright magenta reflections on the rim. Intense, heady aromas of black raspberry liqueur, blueberry coulis, ripe black cherry, candied violets, and plum pie, serve as the massive “primary fruit” wave, followed by ripples of cinnamon, espresso, clove, pipe tobacco, crushed black rock, anise, and beautifully integrated oak spice. Full-bodied, mouth-coating density and intense concentration allow velvety soft tannins and intoxicatingly ripe fruits to envelop the palate with a warm embrace. This is a wine expertly practiced in hedonism and seamless integration, a vinous siren call for cult Napa Cabernet collectors at an entry-level price. Enjoy now through 2025.