Earlier this year, our offer on Long Meadow Ranch’s 2006 Napa Cab went, to use the technical term, bonkers. Sourcing it took weeks of searching, dozens of calls/emails, and a personal visit to their mountainside estate, but the payoff was huge. The Civil War-era history of this mixed viticulture/livestock/olive oil operation, the mindblowing scale of their organic and biodiverse farming, and their large trove of back-vintage wines—all of it was simply rejuvenating. Still, we couldn’t ignore the magnificence of their younger reds, like today’s 2016 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

A seamless blend of new and old-school Napa, this opulent yet elegant benchmark is everything a longtime Cab lover could ask for. An organic, long-lived showstopper from a historic estate like this should easily cost $75, but today’s $50 price tag makes this one of the valley’s more price-accessible and worthy Cabs. To put it simply, this is a wine to go deep on because its combination of price and pedigree make it a member of a dying breed. Although already smoking at five years old, it has the capacity to go 15+ years in your cellar—as evidenced by the ‘06! 

Long Meadow Ranch combines breathtaking grandeur with dirt-under-the-fingernails ruggedness. The sprawling property stretches over 2,000 acres in three counties, with vineyards scattered about Napa’s most distinguished districts. Viticulture and winemaking, however, is only one aspect of this self-sustaining, fully integrated organic farm: They grow seasonal fruits and vegetables to sell at the local farmers’ market; farm the oldest olive trees in Napa for their own olive oil; raise highland cattle and pastured chickens; and it all coalesces into a beautiful feedback loop. It’s hard to express how rare an operation like this is in Napa; in a place where the most profitable option is to plant vines wherever you can, owners Ted and Laddie Hall have chosen to stick to the oldest, most thoughtful, most quality-minded farming possible. 

That care is warranted: the Halls farm some of the most historic land in the Napa Valley. It was originally demarcated by Ulysses S. Grant as a land patent for E.J. Church in the late 1800s. The ranch thrived with vineyards, olive groves, and a dairy operation. Then Prohibition brought the operation to its knees, and it was essentially abandoned until the Halls purchased it in 1989. Since then, they’ve slowly restored the farm to its original glory, and more. Incredibly, they’ve used their reach to secure over 800 surrounding acres as land trusts, ensuring it will remain agricultural forever. Their commitment to Napa’s natural beauty is palpable in the authenticity and refinement of their Cabernet.

The 2016 Long Meadow Ranch Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is 60% from their high-elevation Mayacamas Estate and 40% from their Rutherford estate, all of it Certified Organic. It spends 18 months in 50% new, 50% neutral barrels, and it’s a textbook lesson in refined modern Cabernet. It pours a deep, near-opaque purple with a magenta rim. Give this a half-hour decant and the nose soars with crème de cassis, plum liqueur, blueberry, cedar, clove, tobacco leaf, and fresh violets. It’s lush and strutting on the palate but maintains a core of elegance and freshness thanks to the mountain fruit. Herbal tones like sage and rosemary come to the fore, and near-jammy dark fruits close out the finish. It’s friendly and accessible and modern, but also classic and honest, the prominent tannins hinting at the long life ahead. I can’t wait to follow the evolution of this wine over the years to come, and I strongly recommend you grab enough to do the same!