2015 Grassi Wine Company Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

Sometimes the best deals are simply the result of a long-standing, rock-solid friendship. And that is exactly why today’s 2015 Grassi Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley is not being offered to you at the release price of $80. This sumptuous, racy, dark-fruited, fleshy, spicy Cabernet is just $50, all thanks to our friend, Robbie

Grassi winemaker Robbie Meyer has made wine for best-selling Napa stalwarts like Peter Michael Winery, Jericho Canyon Vineyard, and Lewis Cellars. At his side is Wine Enthusiast Viticulturalist of the Year Miguel Luna, a 20-year veteran of Napa who knows exactly how to shepherd the Valley’s Cabernet Sauvignon to rich, full-bodied greatness. 

So it was over Bistecca alla Fiorentina—and bottles of Brunello, Barolo, and Cabernet—at a European winemaker’s house in Napa that we got to chatting about Meyer’s 600-case production of Grassi Cabernet from the low-yielding 2015 vintage. He’d brought a couple of bottles to share that evening, and the cliché holds true—get together a bunch of wine industry moguls, and see which bottles get consumed the fastest. Those are always the wines that are the most satisfying, the most complex, the most intriguing. 

That night, the first bottles to hit the recycle bin weren’t the Barolos and Brunellos, but today’s 2015 Grassi Cabernet, which the predominantly European crowd downed in record time. Little wonder perhaps, when you factor in the impressive provenance of the fruit source. 

In 1999, Mark Grassi and his wife purchased a 14-acre plot on an ancient riverbed bench just below Atlas Peak. That site is the source for their estate Cabernet, and at 20 years of age, the vines are at peak maturity. Today, they produce dazzling Cabernet that combines structure and power with the lush, rich, dense fruit character that only comes from intense sunshine—the kind that soaks Grassi’s west-facing slopes, which cascade down from Atlas Peak. 

The 2015 vintage in Napa was exquisite, but the year’s unmatched concentration was tempered by low yields, which sent prices through the roof and made it necessary to do serious detective work to get our hands on the best bottles. Good thing we live in Napa, where every single day we make discoveries—sometimes just by showing up at a dinner party.   

2015 Northern California Cabernet offered “a vintage of opulent, voluptuous wines with real personality and character at the top end,” Vinous’s Antonio Galloni wrote in his report, and this 2015 Grassi Cabernet is the epitome of that characterization. Only these are probably the last 28 cases you are likely to find.