2006 Bressler Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena 750 ml

“Winemaker of the Year” Meets Napa’s Vine Whisperer

The 2006 Bressler Cabernet Sauvignon ticks every box on the list: Legendary winemaker? Check. Mia Klein — veteran of Chappellet and consultant for Dalla Valle, Araujo, Viader, and Spottswoode — crafted this beauty fresh off of her 2003 Food & Wine “Winemaker of the Year” win. Top-flight fruit? Double-check. The 5-acre Bressler vineyard on the historic St. Helena bench — a stone’s throw from the famed Hayne and Beckstoffer Dr. Crane vineyards — is cared for by the peerless vineyard manager David Abreu. And after spending 24 months in new French oak and a year in bottle before its 2010 release, this pristine Napa stunner has been resting for seven years in the Bressler cellars and is now hitting its stride. Seamlessly integrated and silky-smooth, it’s a throwback to the refined Cabernets of the 1980s and ‘90s that cemented Napa Valley as a world-class region. A drink-now jewel at a release-date price.

Bob and Stacey Bressler couldn’t see into the future when they founded Bressler on one acre in 1999 — but they did all they could at the time. They landed star winemaker Mia Klein. They added four adjacent acres of mature Cabernet vines. And they put their new estate in the hands of a knowledgeable friend who just happened to be the legendary David Abreu.

The wisdom of what they did then shows now. Klein’s original tasting note from 2010 mentions that the 2006 Bressler Cabernet, with extraction and structure that “certainly bode well for aging,” needed a full day open to be enjoyed young. Nothing can truly replicate the incremental oxygenation that takes place in the cellar, though, and that’s what the 2006 has gotten over the seven years it has spent, untouched, since being released in early 2010. The Bresslers started with passion and good provenance. They sought out the professionals. Now with the addition of patience, the result is a wine whose time has come.