2016 Rocca Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Collinetta Vineyard Coombsville Napa Valley 750 ml

Back in 2002, Eric Grigsby and Mary Rocca had no way of knowing how prescient their risky planting decision would prove to be—and what an incredible value it would one day offer for savvy buyers.

After months of grading and dynamiting, their perfectly exposed, stony 11-acre hill in Coombsville was ready for planting Cabernet Sauvignon. Almost a decade before Coombsville earned AVA status—and well before luminaries like Paul Hobbs, Julien Fayard, and former Screaming Eagle winemaker Andy Erickson turned it into Napa’s hottest ticket—they now had one of the finest, rockiest sites already in the ground: Collinetta Vineyard.

They recruited one of Napa’s most renowned winemakers, Celia Welch, to make the first vintages. In 2007, she insisted they hire Paul Colantuoni—a talented up-and-comer seasoned by stints at Mondavi, Neyers, Vieux Télégraphe, and Brancaia—to craft the wine. 

Fast forward to the absolutely phenomenal 2016 vintage. Wine Advocate rated it 98 points, tying 2013 for its highest-rated vintage of all time—and the prodigiously gifted Colantuoni nailed it. 

The Collinetta Vineyard lies on a Coombsville hill where daily average temps can be as much as ten degrees cooler during summer than in the rest of the Valley. This makes for a very long growing season, which means that when the Valley has a great vintage, Coombsville has an exceptional vintage.

Antonio Galloni of Vinous wrote, “The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignons are gorgeous wines endowed with striking aromatic intensity, nuance and depth. Over time, the wines have fleshed out beautifully.” Look for the 2016 Collinetta to develop and blossom around another ten years. We’ll drink one of our bottles with a peppery daube of beef cheeks with porcini mushrooms.