2016 Grounded Wine Company Steady State Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

Crafted by a next-generation superstar schooled in the harvests of some of Napa’s most iconic properties, the 2016 Grounded Steady State Cabernet is a blazing hot deal that we’re thrilled to share.

Winemaker Josh Phelps—featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and Wine Enthusiast’s 40 Under 40—literally grew up with the kind of cult Cabernets for which collectors pay $300 per bottle. His father, Chris Phelps, honed his craft at Petrus, was the founding winemaker at Dominus, and made wines for Caymus and Inglenook. All the while, his son helped—and absorbed lessons from a classically-trained master.

Now Josh is taking that golden family heritage and a priceless network of contacts to the next level with this top-tier release, a Cabernet that sets a new bar for accessibility and excellence. After we made our pitch at a lunch at Napa’s Angèle, he agreed to part with a few cases of this extremely small-production bottling. It’s a voluptuous, modern spin on the 100-point, old-school Cab classics on which Josh was trained. 

“This impressive red overdelivers on its price point,” declared Wine Enthusiast in its 93-point Editors’ Choice recommendation. Made from rich, plush grapes culled from top sites in Napa Valley’s Oak Knoll, Rutherford, and Oakville AVAs, then luxuriously aged in French oak (40% new), this stellar Cabernet is designed to drink perfectly right now. Aromas of delicate purple florals and sun-kissed black cherry start brimming from the glass the moment you pour the wine. Everything you’d want in a Napa Cab—big, integrated tannins, vivid acidity, a rich core packed with fruit—is here at an unbelievable bargain.

Josh is a wonderful lunch partner, blending his insights on Napa Valley with stories of sipping Caymus as a teenager and summer trips to Château d’Yquem. But over our friendly meeting hung an anxious question: Would we come away with an allocation of his 2016?

We’d been one of the first to taste and sell the debut iteration of the Steady State Cabernet, sampling an early bottle of the 2015 in Josh’s kitchen in St. Helena. The bottling sold incredibly fast, with cases flying off the shelves, and our voicemail and email inbox filled with messages requesting more.

When the check dropped, Josh finally let us off the hook: Thanks to the sell-out success of the last vintage, he had an allocation of the 2016 for Wine Access. We expect it’ll go even faster this time.