2014 Correlation Wine Co. Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

Correlation Wine Co’s Showstopping Debut

The Correlation Wine Co., born from the family behind Spring Mountain’s celebrated Vineyard 7 & 8, now stands alone—and stands apart. Robert Parker honored the inaugural 2014 Correlation Cabernet Sauvignon with 94 points, a score that places it right alongside some of the best and priciest Cabernets in California, including Staglin (94, $250), Newton Mt. Veeder (94, $190), and Eisele Vineyard (94, $466). 

Founder Wes Steffen’s real-life resume reads awfully close to one that a less-scrupulous vintner might be tempted to fabricate: He gained early experience at marquee wineries Bond and Harlan Estates, and rounded it out with a stint at The French Laundry. For the past 12 years, he has led his family’s Vineyard 7 & 8, one of Spring Mountain’s most lauded properties. With Correlation Wine Co., Wes is taking the very logical, yet very ambitious step of establishing his own winery.  

Steffens created Correlation to explore the relationships (or “correlations”) that are the foundation behind a great bottle of wine—and his efforts don’t disappoint. Steffens and co-winemaker Martha McClellan source fruit from a few coveted parcels where their hands and feet are in the soils and among the vines: the Atchley Vineyard and Vineyard 7 & 8 on Spring Mountain as well as from the Beckstoffer Melrose Vineyard in Rutherford. These two talented winemakers have driven Vineyard 7 & 8 to lofty heights, and their impeccable standards, combined with one of Napa’s top vintages in memory, are what have made Correlation’s first steps so rock-solid. This is a new wine of very familiar quality that belongs alongside the top Cabernets in your cellar. 

Correlation has been Wes’s brainchild from the beginning. It started under the Vineyard 7 & 8 label as a celebration of the relationship between the winery and the neighboring Atchley Vineyard. That stellar fruit, along with fruit from Vineyard 7 & 8 itself, provides Correlation’s Spring Mountain backbone. To finish the blend, Wes and McClellan have gone directly to one of Napa Valley’s top growers, tapping the Beckstoffer Melrose Vineyard in Rutherford. 

Robert Parker has taken note of what has driven the quality of Vineyard 7 & 8, citing McClellan’s “limitless talent” and “perfectionist, nearly obsessive attitude toward making world-class wines.” It is clear that the pair apply that same obsessive oversight to Correlation, which is produced on the same site from hand-picked, double-hand-sorted fruit, which is aged 26 months in new French oak to add inimitable spice quality and a silken texture to the final wine. 

From the fruit sources to the winemakers to the 94-point score, everything about Correlation shows the kind of top-quality wine for which Wesley Steffens and Martha McClellan are known. For anyone who has tasted one of Steffens’ and McClellan’s Cabernets, the quality will be very familiar. It’s the same great pedigree, under a unique new label.