2016 Stay Home Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

As professional wine lovers, staying home isn’t really in our DNA. To love wine is to love the endless pursuit of it, from uncovering hidden vineyard pockets in our California backyard to sourcing rare bottlings from era-defining estates abroad. It takes a certain kind of wine to make us forget the chase and relish in the familiar. And when we tasted this delicious, soul-affirming, 2016 Cabernet from Napa’s famed hillsides, the only thing we wanted to do with it was take it home, and stay there.

From a majestic estate that’s been described as “One of Napa’s Hidden Treasures” by Food & Wine, we fell for this fresh expression of 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon as a barrel sample. With all its black cherry, mountain blueberry, tobacco leaf, and dusting of pepper, sage, and wild spice, we assumed it was destined for the winery’s flagship $70 bottling. The one that would become a 94-point Cellar Selection in Wine Enthusiast in 2016.

Instead, we bought a few barrels at cost to bottle ourselves and offer for $20 as a rainy-day gift to our members. We can’t reveal the famous name of our source, but the Atlas Peak estate is a passion project from an Italian powerhouse family that practically invented Super Tuscans. According to Robert Parker, this winery’s Napa investment “is paying big dividends in terms of quality,” while Antonio Galloni has been “deeply impressed with the wines.”

The most compelling quote we heard came directly from the family patriarch, who said of this Cabernet, “when we are at home in Napa, we drink this.”

That’s because this wine is the perfect way to experience the extreme terrain and wild elements that vines are exposed on Napa’s mountainous slopes without having to brave them yourself. Especially in 2016 the year the Wine Advocate dubbed “a fabulous vintage for expressing terroir signatures over vintage signature,” while “offering a chance to really view the singular expressions these sites have to offer with absolute clarity.”

Ancient mineral deposits deliver chocolatey tannins and the wild evergreen shrubs and sagebrush really give this 2016 Cabernet its character and a truly transportive sense of place. We decided to call it Stay Home, not only as a nod to the current proverbial “rainy day” we’re all experiencing in some form, but because this is the kind of wine that reminds us to slow down, to pause the infinite quest, and to savor sublimity in the familiar.

For us, nothing is more familiar than the romance of Napa Valley Cabernet from estates like this. Resting serenely at 1,800 feet above sea level, the 1,200-acre natural amphitheater is ringed by hills and ridges. Emerging from the garden driveway and taking in the sprawling vistas is akin to a viticultural Shangri-La. The journey there is less romantic.

Even though we essentially live and work in the shadow of Atlas Peak, the remote, volcanic palisade on the eastern flanks of Napa Valley has always retained an eerily beguiling shroud of mystery no matter how many times we’ve braved the jagged curves and dizzying slopes of its infamous Soda Canyon Road. It’s the kind of drive that’s more fun to re-live from the safety of the couch than the white-knuckle confines of the car, truth be told. Especially when the wine itself is so evocative of its scenic origins.

With the estate’s soaring, mountainous essence captured in such a thrillingly extracted, powerhouse $20 bottle, we can’t think of a better excuse to, well, stay home and drink it in.

The rugged Napa slopes that grew these grapes bring incredible depth and structure to the wine, yet it remains a very fresh expression of Cabernet. The high-altitude, volcanic terroir has bewitched mavericks like 100 point-winemaker and Screaming Eagle alum Heidi Barrett and The Judge legend John Kongsgaard, both of whom make stunning reds in the same neighborhood that attract the high-flying collector set at $250+ per bottle. To know our $20 Stay Home Cabernet comes from the same terrain is almost unfair.

Almost.