2017 Anderson Conn Valley Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 750 ml

Anderson Conn Valley’s Napa Valley Cab Coup

You heard it here first: The Anderson Conn Valley 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon may be the best Cabernet Sauvignon from Todd Anderson in his 30-year history. If you love Napa Cab as much as we do, don’t hesitate on this one.

We discovered this luxurious new release deep in the cool, dark barrel cellars at Anderson Conn Valley’s St. Helena headquarters, when we were greeted with an unexpected surprise. Instead of bottles and a neat tasting sheet, spread before us were eight mystery magnums, marked only with blue painters tape and a smattering of letters and numbers. The code was imperceptible. As we sat down, the anticipation was palpable—this was no average tasting.

In the depths of the cellar, all eight wines dark, inky, and purple in the glass. Across the board, they were rich, opulent and berry-scented, with varying levels of spice, earth, toast, and herbs. But one wine stood out—today’s 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon, which leaped from the glass with the signature warmth, depth, and robust fruit flavors of the St. Helena AVA.

Over the course of an hour, we swirled and savored the team’s latest release—the sought after bottling from the same vines as their $125 reserve—which displays the character of the estate’s rocky, steeply sloped vineyards and French Oak aging in equal, luxurious measure. Because Todd Anderon’s lavish, layered, and top-scoring Cabernets have a history of disappearing on Wine Access, we have this delicious, plummy Cabernet at the best price in the nation.

In the past, this bottling has earned rave reviews from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, which praised its “vivacity” and “vibrant black fruits.”

Wine Access members have gone further, calling this wine a “Really lovely Cab for the price,” and confessing, “I like this as much, perhaps more, than most of the Reserves.” One happy drinker even admitted this Napa Valley release is “hard to tell from ACV's Reserve Cab.”