2012 Cornerstone Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label Stepping Stone Cuvee Napa Valley 750 ml

Cornerstone Throws WineAccess a Bone … from the Left-Field Bleachers

In the summer of 2012, after two years of pounding on Cornerstone’s door, we finally pried open the entrance to one of Napa Valley’s cult Cabernet cellars. It would be on the humid morning of July 12th that Chicagoan Craig Camp finally threw WineAccess a bone. Celia Welch — one of the most celebrated Cabernet-makers in Napa Valley and fresh off her 100-point performance at Scarecrow — had crafted a knockout 2007 Cornerstone Cabernet Sauvignon. We were the beneficiaries.

The offer took off like a rocket ship and never slowed down. Even Camp, after 30 years in the wine business, was shocked by WineAccess’s buying power. Three days later, we met Camp for lunch at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Yountville, just down the street from The French Laundry and the Cornerstone tasting room. Lunch, Craig said, was on him.

After smoked salmon appetizers, boeuf bourguignon, and two bottles of Cornerstone Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, we were feeling pretty chummy. Camp, known around the valley for his blustery Wrigley Field persona, couldn’t have been more solicitous. The ice was broken, we felt. By the time we finished the crème brûlée and double espressos, we were mentally scheduling a half-dozen Cornerstone offers for the months to come.

So much for thinking ahead.

Since Celia Welch’s 2007 earned a whopping 90 perfect 5-star reviews on WineAccess, you’ve read very little about Craig Camp or the powerhouse Cornerstone Cabernet Sauvignons drawn exclusively from top vineyards like To Kalon in Oakville and Ink Grade on Howell Mountain. Like other cult Napa Valley producers, Cornerstone sales have been brisk both in the tasting room and around the country. We called Craig every three months since July 2012, and Camp was always as polite as he was resolute. “I can’t sell wine I don’t have,” he lamented.

But then, on June 17th, as Camp returned to his old stomping grounds and Jake Arrieta whiffed 11 in just six innings before the bullpen mopped up the Pirates, Craig pulled out his cellphone while seated in the left-field bleachers of Wrigley Field. Fortunately, WineAccess was still on speed-dial.

“Guys, I’m in Chicago. I didn’t forget. I’ve got something for you!” Craig shouted in the phone, competing with the roar of 30,000 fans raucously singing Steve Goodman’s “Go Cubs Go!”

“What didn’t you forget? And Craig? And what do you have?”

“I didn’t forget the 2007. Our lunch at Bouchon. Bartman! Listen. I have a hundred cases of Black Label. Howell Mountain and Oakville. You want them?”

“What vintage?”

“2012,” we thought we heard above the roar.

“Louder, Craig. Speak LOUDER. WHAT vintage??”

“TWO THOUSAND TWELVE!!!”

Huh? We took them all.

The 2012 Cornerstone Cabernet Sauvignon Black Label is purple-black in color. Gorgeous aromas of blue and black fruit, graphite, black currant, mint, and violets. Big, bold, and statuesque like all the great mountain 2012s, silken in texture, showing great density and power, filled with a voluptuous mix of crushed blackberry and mountain blueberry, finishing with fine, dusty tannins that much remind us of Celia’s Welch’s magnificent 2007. Drink now for its youthful hedonism or lay down until the mid-2020s.

$55 on release. $28 today — as Cornerstone throws WineAccess a bone from the left-field bleachers of Wrigley Field.

P.S. After you buy, be sure to watch this.