2012 Chad Cabernet Sauvignon Atlas Peak Napa Valley 750 ml

Chad on Atlas Peak

Chad learned all he needed to know after days of barrel-tasting in the late spring of 2013. The 2012 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons were mind-boggling. Despite some of the highest yields in 30 years, a mild but exceedingly dry growing season gave birth to blockbuster Cabernets of extraordinary black-fruit richness, buttressed by ripe, sturdy tannins. 

Up and down the Silverado Trail and Highway 29 — and even more importantly, on the high-elevation perches of Howell Mountain, Atlas Peak, and Mt. Veeder — wineries were cautiously optimistic. For the young winemaker whose red-hot brand was founded in the throes of the Great Recession, it was now a game of "wait and see." If The Wine Advocate came out like gangbusters, release prices of these terrifically opulent 2012s would soar. 

Chad's only hope? Maybe Robert Parker would have an "off day." 

On October 31st, 2014, Parker published his 2012 Napa Valley vintage report, entitled "Napa's Cup Runneth Over." So much for RP's "off" days.

The Wine Advocate blew the lid off the story of the extravagant 2012 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons, describing a growing season of "textbook-perfect weather conditions." For the first time in several years, growers were free to harvest at their leisure, allowing natural sugars to soar as acids remained firm. Robert Parker went on to describe the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignons as having "exuberant, boisterous, even flamboyant personalities, sweet, well-integrated tannins, intense fruit extract, and relatively high alcohols ranging from 14.5 to 16- plus percent."

Over lunch at Farmstead in St. Helena, Chad took his medicine. "My timing turned out to be perfect. I hatched the idea for CHAD in 2009, just as distributors stopped answering supplier phone calls and retailers trimmed inventory awaiting the storm to come. But now, with the release of these incredible 2012s, bargains are nearly impossible to come by."

Nearly … but not entirely.

Parker is correct in saying that "it is nearly impossible to find a 2012 that is not showing well," and, in the rockiest mountain AVAs where yields are always meager, the class of 2012 surpasses even the monumental 2007s. Off an impossible 13-acre "rockpile" perched at 1,100 feet on Atlas Peak, just 2.5 tons per acre of small-berry Cabernet Sauvignon clusters were hand-harvested and then trucked to one of the mountain's most revered addresses. After a 25-day cool fermentation, the wine was transferred to small French barrels, 50% of which were new, and then aged for 16 months before bottling. 

That's when the winery — for reasons our winemaker buddy wasn't at liberty to discuss — called Chad.

The 2012 Chad Cabernet Sauvignon "Atlas Peak" is exquisite. Purple/black to the rim, filled with explosive aromas of blackberry and black raspberry preserves, braced with new-wood cedar. Rich, dense, and compact on the attack, filled with a powerhouse mix of blackberry, mountain blueberry, violets, and sweet crème de cassis, finishing with the dusty tannins and age-worthy backbone for which Atlas Peak is so well-known. Drink now for its primary-fruit Hedonism or lay down until the mid-2020s.

$65/bottle under the winery's label. Or $27 this morning behind Chad. You make the call. Shipping included on 4.