2014 Ovid Napa Valley Red Wine Set of 3 750 ml

We have just 20 three-bottle packs of this previously-unobtainable cult red from the cellars of Ovid in Napa Valley, and are offering them to a limited group of Wine Access members. Ovid’s waiting list, we’re told, is years long, and today we invite you to cut the line. As always, our allocation of the 2014 Ovid Napa Valley Red comes directly from the winery cellars, in mint condition, with perfect provenance. 

Exactly ten years ago critic Robert Parker had his first look at the wines of OVID, a project, he noted, that comes “from one of my favorite sites in Napa Valley, Pritchard Hill.” Parker tasted three wines from the 2006 vintage, and commented, “this trio lived up to my lofty expectations.” Parker’s review set a high bar, and year over year, OVID continues to raise it.

If you’ve been among the fortunate few to obtain an appointment, you know the perfectionist nature of the team behind these small-lot reds, which includes vineyard manager David Abreu (Screaming Eagle, Bryant Family, and Harlan Estate) and winemaker Austin Peterson, who in the early days of OVID worked alongside Andy Erickson (Screaming Eagle, Dalle Valle, Favia), and today continues with support from Michel Rolland. 

In 2017, when Wine Spectator broke the news that David Duncan and Jack Bittner had taken on stewardship of OVID over a handshake deal, I knew that the future of OVID was bright. After all, the former owners, Mark Nelson and Dana Johnson, are longtime friends of David and Jack and they all share the same dedication to precision winemaking. 

In 1998, when Mark and Dana planted their secluded 15-acre vineyard at 1,400 ft. elevation in the western reaches of Pritchard Hill, they were pioneers. No one was quite sure what would become of a small gravity-fed winery designed by Howard Backen (Meadowood) that was producing wines from Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot grapes rooted in the rocky red, volcanic soils. But today, given that OVID is a household name among serious collectors, it’s clear they made good choices.

Like each of their red wines, the 2014 OVID Napa Valley Red Wine (a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Cabernet Franc and 5% Merlot) was hand-harvested, fermented by native yeasts, aged in 55% new French Oak barrels for 22 months, and bottled without fining or filtering. 2014 was the third consecutive year of drought in Napa Valley, in which a warm, dry growing season followed until August, when temperatures rose just a bit—a harbinger of good things to come. Harvest came at an even pace, with no rush, and the resulting 2014 OVID shares many characteristics with OVID wines from the previous two drought vintages: It’s got the profound heft and tremendous focus of the 2013 vintage, and  offers dense aromatics of mulberry, dark chocolate, blackberry and tobacco that literally spring from the glass.