2012 Gamble Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

When the SEND Button Doesn’t Send — The Oakville Elite

About a half-dozen times in 2015, we’d hit the SEND button for a morning story only to learn later that some of the emails that were supposedly sent — never went. Why? Good question. Our production team is working feverishly to figure out what happened on Tuesday. In the meantime, if you already saw this offer for the 2012 Gamble Family Cabernet Sauvignon, we apologize. If not, there are 472 bottles remaining of the inaugural release from this blue-chip Oakville estate.

Over the last decade, especially the last three years, some of Napa Valley’s most prominent growers have launched or dramatically increased production of their own estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignons. The arithmetic behind these decisions isn’t difficult to understand, something surely not lost on Tom Gamble.

The Gambles are one of the valley’s oldest and most respected farming families. 2016 will mark their 100-year anniversary. But Tom’s pride and joy are the family’s two Oakville properties — the 3.7-acre Family Home and 11-acre Cairo Vineyard. Who are Gamble’s closest neighbors? Only a half dozen of Napa’s greatest properties. Immediately to the west sits Silver Oak. Just on the other side of the Oakville Cross Road are Groth and PlumpJack. Down the road from Groth is Opus One. Last, but hardly least, a stone’s throw away to the east is mighty Screaming Eagle.

Among Gamble’s longstanding clients are Thomas Rivers Brown (author of a bevy of Schrader 100-pointers), Paul Hobbs, Far Niente’s Nickel & Nickel, and Philippe Melka. While Gamble wouldn’t divulge the asking price for his fruit, given the piping-hot Oakville market one has to assume upwards of $8,500/ton. That’s nothing to sneeze at. But if one does the math, the argument for pulling back on selling grapes is awfully compelling.

Here are the numbers: It takes 16 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon to make 1,000 cases. Assuming a selling price of $8,500/ton, that translates to $136 per case in grapes. Conservatively, add another $75/case for winemaking, new French barrels, bottles, corks, and foils, and the total cost of producing a case is around $212 or $17/bottle.

The release price of Gamble’s 2012 Family Home Cabernet Sauvignon is $120. The 2012 Opus One will set you back $225. PlumpJack Reserve — if you’re fortunate enough to be on the mailing list — is $325. As to Screaming Eagle, forget about it … it’s $2,800/bottle!

Acknowledging the Oakville arithmetic, in the monumental 2012 vintage the Gambles released for the first time a Cabernet Sauvignon drawn from four of the family’s most priceless properties — the 3.7-acre Family Home Vineyard, the 11-acre Cairo Vineyard , CC Ranch and an addition from the Gambles’ newest small spread in Calistoga. Given the pedigree of the hand-selected rows from which this Cabernet was drawn, it comes as no surprise that the inaugural release of the Gamble Family Cabernet Sauvignon ranks among the most jaw-dropping bargains of the vintage.

Forget today’s modest price tag: This wine will knock your socks off. Opaque purple-black. Highly perfumed aromas of black cherry, black currant, mint, and graphite, and after 20 months in French cooperage, tinged with cedar. Rich, dense, and sappy on the attack, silken in texture. The core is packed with crushed black- and red-fruit preserves, a hint of coffee and dark chocolate, finishing with sturdy if supple tannin backbone. Drink now for its hedonism in youth or lay down until the late 2020s.

$68 on release. $40 today as Tom Gamble tests these waters. Time to show Mr. Gamble what the buying power of WineAccess is all about! Shipping included on 4.