Robb Report’s Napa Valley Wine Club Has 3 Stellar New Reds on the Way
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Aficionados of Napa Valley red wine are always on the hunt for exclusive new bottles to add to their cellar. The Robb Report 672 Napa Valley Wine Club is here to help with a steady roster of hard-to-find Cabernet Sauvignon, blends, and other exciting reds from America’s premier wine region. All these bottles are made in limited quantities—usually just a couple of barrels—and while some may be a cuvée from a variety of prime Napa grape-growing sites, the majority are site-specific expressions of privileged terroir.
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Every quarter, six bottles are shipped to members—two each of three different wines, so you can drink one now and cellar the other. Club director Dave Shefferman, CEO of WineSavage, is well connected in Napa, having developed relationships with winery owners and winemakers over his career in California. He casts a wide net for potential offerings, looking for limited bottlings that would ordinarily only be sold to a winery’s club members or that are super small productions of only a few hundred cases or less which would be hard to procure anywhere. Each package is priced between $550 and $650, including shipping. And while a hard-to-source cult wine is well worth the price if you really want it, the beauty of this club is that it connects members with wines of “cult” status without the hassle of allocation lists or searching for bottles on the secondary market.
To decide what actually makes the cut each quarter, Shefferman and a team of sommeliers, WSET certified wine professionals, and winemakers come together to blind taste his choices. Out of upwards of 60 wines—oftentimes as many as 100—Shefferman narrows it down to a dozen or less possibilities. For the upcoming quarter, to ship in June, we met with Shefferman in Napa and tasted through the team’s top choices to pick the final three. And while all the wines we tasted deserved to be part of this collection, the three selected are exceptional. (Full disclosure, we also write the tasting cards and producer profiles that are included with each shipment, but we do not receive any additional compensation from the wine club.)
Robb Report readers know that whatever the category, only the cream of the crop makes the cut to be featured within its pages or on its website. Robb Report’s writers and editors scour the world of luxury to highlight the very best, from personal aircraft to restaurants to automobiles (and beyond). The selection process for the wine club is decided in the same manner. Here’s a sneak peek at Robb Report 672 Napa Valley Wine Club’s upcoming picks.
Pono Wines 2019 Hapa Napa Valley Red Wine
Proprietor Dave Sedeno, a native of Hawaii, crafts small batch wines with grapes sourced from some of Napa Valley’s finest sites. Hawaiian for “mixed” or “blended,” Hapa is made with mainly Cabernet Sauvignon (59 percent) with 20 percent Cabernet Franc, 16 percent Merlot, and 5 percent Petit Verdot from Calistoga, Atlas Peak, and Howell Mountain. Brilliant ruby to the eye, it has a bouquet of blackberry, raspberry, candied violet, and lavender. It opens on the palate with notes of licorice and clove joined by flavors of purple plum, blackberry, and butterscotch. Polished tannins endure on the palate, offering a long, smooth closing finish.
Farella 2018 Alta Red Blend
Made in the style of the incredible 1999 Masseto, the first vintage of Farella Alta was produced in 2001. A blend of 65.55 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 32.78 percent Merlot, and 1.67 percent Malbec, it is sourced from the winery’s estate vineyard in Coombsville. After co-fermentation (meaning the three varieties are fermented together, not separately) in open-topped stainless-steel vats, it is aged in French oak, half new and half previously used, for 30 months. It is bottled unfined and unfiltered, so it’s best to leave the bottle upright for several hours before serving. It is dark garnet in color and has a nose of cranberry, pomegranate, crumbled sage, and white pepper. Opulent tannins provide a framework for black cherry, dried cherry, and forest floor flavors with soft brambly touches. There is a strong sense of minerality that offers a note of salinity in the elegant finish.
VinRoc 2019 Atlas Peak Cabernet Sauvignon
Grapes are sourced from VinRoc’s estate vineyard on Atlas Peak, where proprietor Michael Parmenter says “coyotes outnumber tourists.” Named for the rock-strewn hillside location, VinRoc sits at an 1,600-foot elevation above the fog line, providing long, sunny days and cool nights, which help to obtain maximum ripeness while maintaining freshness and acidity. Aging two years in a mix of new and used French oak in the winery’s rock-hewn cave yields a refined wine with aromas of cherry, black currant, and dried thyme. Tannins are slightly grippy at first sip, but as they peel away, nuanced flavors of black cherry, dark chocolate, caramel, and a touch of baking spices appear. The long-lasting finish is marked with notes of clove and nutmeg.
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