2017 Goldschmidt Vineyards Lawless Cabernet Sauvignon Embankment Vineyard Oakville Napa Valley 750 ml

There’s a mystique to Oakville—the AVA of giants, a two-mile stretch impossibly clustered with icons like Screaming Eagle, Harlan Estate, Opus One, and Dalla Valle. The price of entry into the inner circle, defined by the region’s richness and suppleness, is prohibitive for most of us.

That’s what makes winemaker Nick Goldschmidt and his astounding 2017 single-vineyard Cabernet from a top Oakville site such outliers—even iconoclasts. Today’s offer has all the hallmarks of a three-digit bottle: old, dry-farmed vines from a historic parcel, proximity to two of the most expensive vineyards in the appellation, a barrel-aging regimen in toasty, tight-grain French oak, 20% new.

Yet this bottle costs just $42—yes, $42!—even as it’s received critical adulation, with 93 points from Wine & Spirits, describing this 2017 release as “plump and playful” and “generously rich, even as it’s also tart and savory.”

After 20 minutes in the glass, scents of cherry cola, pine, and worked leather rose from the lip of our Riedel stemware. A rich core lavishly filled out with black cherry, licorice, and black olive tapenade is framed by a tannic structure that’s just starting to soften, resolving into a two-minute finish that’s creamy and spicy.

There may not be another deal in the appellation quite like this one, so if a single-vineyard 100% Oakville Cabernet for under-$50 sounds appealing to you, you’ll want to move with some alacrity today.

There may not be another vintner quite like Nick either. A native Kiwi, he’s built a one-of-a-kind résumé, holding winemaker titles at Simi, Gary Farrell, William Hill, and Chalk Hill.

Here in Napa, Nick has sometimes run afoul of the powers that be—fellow winemakers who would have him price his wines as exorbitantly as they do, and avoid rocking the boat. Possessed of a wicked sense of humor, he’s remained unfazed, going so far as to name his brand “Lawless” in reference to his rebellious streak.

But how does he make the math work? That was something we, even after 20 years of friendship with Nick, wondered too—how he managed to make wine that tastes like $100 for less than $50.

“I write contracts like I used to write in New Zealand,” he told us. “It’s win-win for the winery and the grower. Everyone’s happy.”

The vineyard for this wine, called Embankment, was an original Inglenook property, planted to field selection vines, not clones. They were selected for loose clusters and lower yields, making for healthy, well-ventilated grapes that ripen beautifully; the age of the vines creates a singular suppleness of tannin. Meanwhile, the dry-farming approach results in smaller berries, which leads to greater intensity, with a high skin-to-pulp ratio. No wonder the world-famous sites just down the street command $300 a bottle.

Yet thanks to a friendship discount and Nick’s stubborn dedication to eking deals out of Napa’s most expensive real estate, you can run away with an Oakville beauty for as little as $42 per bottle.