2012 Andrew Lane Barrel Select Napa Valley 750 ml

Right-Bank Styled Cellar Release Napa Red

How often do you find a perfectly cellared Napa library wine, drinking like an absolute classic right now, for $30? Andrew Lane has been in operation in the valley since the 1970s, gaining a reputation for small-production wines that are the dictionary definition of New World lushness and concentration. Only 400 cases were made of the 2012 Barrel Select Red, which draws on old-vine fruit from some of Napa’s choicest spots, including Atlas Peak, Howell Mountain, and Rutherford. When winemaker Andrew Dickson made a fraction of his library collection available to us, we snapped up 100 cases of this opulent effort on the spot. After aging for 6 years in cool, dark Napa cellars, the Right Bank-styled beauty can be yours for $30 — the steal of the phenomenal 2012 harvest.

If you find yourself traveling through the St. Helena area anytime soon, it’d be a crime not to swing by the Andrew Lane Winery for what locals refer to as the Cheval Blanc breakfast. For the uninitiated, that’s housemade Cabernet Franc jelly slathered on golden-brown, toasty English muffins, served alongside a glass of silky Merlot. Delicious!

If the folks at Andrew Lane Winery know anything, it’s richness that flirts with hedonism and profound fruit concentration. The business dates back to the early 1970s when Dave Dickson moved to Napa, attracted by California’s prime surfing waves. After meeting vineyard manager Rex Geitner, Dave caught the winemaking bug and traded in his Mickey Munoz surfboard for an old basket press (still in use today). Soon, his Sauvignon Blancs and Cabernet Sauvignons were snapping up awards along the coast, including “Best Of” honors at the Napa Town & Country Fair.

David’s son Andrew took over operations in 2002 and focused on making superbly structured Bordeaux blends infused with New World ripeness, winning recognition in Food & Wine as the face of “Hidden, Affordable Napa Valley.”

2012 was the kind of year wineries like Andrew Lane wait decades for. The wines, which have been compared with the priceless 2009 Médocs, were “exactly what we have come to expect from top years in Napa Valley,” said Robert Parker: “exuberant and boisterous, filled with oodles of ripe fruit, exceptional purity and fleshy, succulent, mouth-filling, crowd-pleasing personalities of considerable character and richness.”

Thanks to the winery’s deep connections in the region, the mix for the Barrel Select blend hailed from some of Napa’s most coveted old-vine sites: 72% Merlot from the eastern slope of Atlas Peak, 12% Petit Verdot from Howell Mountain, 10% Cabernet from Rutherford’s Chaix estate, and 6% field blend from St. Helena. The result? A 2012 Bordeaux blend for the ages, supple and sumptuous, drinking perfectly today after a six-year stint in the cellars. Sign up for your take before it’s gone.

- Wine Access Wine Team