2016 Apriori Proprietary Red California 750 ml

Apriori’s Proprietary Red is one of the hottest values in Napa. It’s a rare chance to drink a powerful, cult-style Cabernet blend from one of the valley’s best winemaking teams without waiting years to join a mailing list—or paying more than $40.

The second label of Vice Versa, whose $300 Cabernets earn 99- and 100-point scores with regularity, Apriori is made by the all-star team at Philippe Melka’s Atelier Melka, and it comes from a blend of coveted sites, including headliners in the Howell Mountain and Rutherford AVAs. We’re able to offer the 2016, from one of Napa’s greatest-ever vintages, for just $24 per bottle.

That’s a price we never expect to see associated with a wine from Atelier Melka, best known for crafting some of the most sought-after Cabernets in Napa Valley. Philippe Melka made his name with a string of 100-point wines, and names like Dana Estates, Lail, Bryant Family, Hundred Acre, and Seavey wouldn’t be the same without his expertise. Add the pedigree of Melka’s Director of Winemaking Maayan Koschitzky—who has Screaming Eagle and Dalla Valle pedigree—and it’s easy to see why Apriori reads as “cult” as soon as it hits the glass.

Showing a dark ruby-purple color, Apriori boasts luxurious aromas of dark plums, cocoa powder, ripe black cherries, violets, and warm baking spices, all woven together like fine cloth. The palate continues the layered complexity of the nose, framed by elegant tannins that provide a subtle grip before a velvety finish. This is one classy bottle, and it defies its price tag to deliver a memorable experience.

While the team at Apriori can’t exactly reveal where they source the grapes for this knockout red—beyond admitting that Rutherford and Howell Mountain vineyards play large roles in the final wine—they’re clearly leveraging their Vice Versa connections to put some premium grapes in the bottle. Apriori’s big-brother label is known for single-vineyard wines from some of Napa’s finest sites, including Beckstoffer To Kalon and Dr. Crane, and it's easy to taste the quality of the terroir.

Those grapes are then given the luxury treatment in the winery, with carefully managed fermentations before a 20-month stay in 25% new French Oak. That extended elevage is perfect for smoothing the tannins of this bottle into silkiness, and it’s a rarity at this price. Add in a few years of bottle-age to build complexity and nuance, and you end up with a wine that has few peers at its price.

2016 is one of the finest years in Napa’s history—the vintage earned the highest-ever score for California Cabernet on Wine Advocate’s vintage chart, and the highest score since 1999 from Wine Spectator. Apriori’s red captures the full glory of that growing season, perfect to pair with a NY strip off the grill, tomorrow night or in a decade.