2016 Anderson Conn Valley Vineyards Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

Todd Anderson, the man behind today’s dual 94-point Cabernet is a Napa Valley icon: He seems about seven feet tall, but add a few inches for the black Stetson that never leaves his head. He is perpetually clouded by a billow of fine cigar smoke, and wears a long black coat—even when the St. Helena summer temperatures top 100 degrees—that makes him look like he stepped out of a Cormac McCarthy novel.

Fortunately, the wines measure up to the man who makes them: Todd’s 2016 Anderson Conn Valley Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is the latest iteration of a Wine Access Cabernet favorite, with a history of selling out in record time. It is an opaque, chewy, and boisterous Napa blockbuster that is aged in French oak for 22 months, bottled unfined and unfiltered, and shows tons of dark fruit, baking spice, and rich tannins. 

There’s a reason why Anderson Conn Valley is a consistent Wine Access favorite: This is a wine that deserves its $125 SRP, and is an absolute no-brainer at our bargain price. The grapes behind the Reserve hail from vines planted high above St. Helena, where Conn Creek flows off Howell Mountain—Anderson’s estate vineyards, some of the steepest and rockiest parcels in Napa, produce this singular Reserve Cabernet.

The 2016 will stain your glass a vivid purple-black when swirled and showcases an “old-school sense of structure to balance things out,” according to Vinous, which also praised it as “a fabulous showing.” 

In just a short time, all the hype surrounding the 2016 vintage for Napa Valley Cabernet has been justified—and continues to improve with each passing month. The Advocate’s 98-point “extraordinary” vintage is plain as day in this 2016 Anderson Conn Valley, and also in its neighbors and counterparts. The wines today have spent a little over a year in the market, and are among the most pure-fruited, richly layered, firmly tannic and impressive from Napa in the last decade. They possess more lifted acidity than the 2013s, the only other vintage that could still give 2016 a run for the money. 

Given ACV’s name recognition and yet another dream vintage in Napa, we predict another rush by Wine Access Cabernet lovers to claim our allocation of Anderson’s Conn Valley. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.