2018 Aperture Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon SJ Ranch Alexander Valley 750 ml

Jesse Katz is as hot as a winemaker can be.

A superstar who’s developed his craft over 21 harvests, he’s worked stints at iconic properties like Petrus, Screaming Eagle, and Haut-Brion. He earned multiple 100-point scores before the age of 40, developed a custom wine for Justin Timberlake’s wedding, AND one of his bottles fetched $1,000,000 at auction.

Jesse’s 97-point SJ Ranch Cabernet, grown on a gravel-rich Alexander Valley vineyard adjacent to Verité ($425) is a powerful, seductive wine normally restricted to Katz’s mailing list. We’re thrilled we were able to lock in a handful of bottles for Wine Access members.

Katz headed to Sonoma—Alexander Valley in particular—to try to do things no one’s done before. Vineyards like the one he chose for this wine are still being studied: As he told us, the region is decades behind Napa in terms of site selection. That means there’s an opportunity to make a mark by raising Cabernets like this one to unprecedented heights, all while keeping prices within the stratosphere.

He was drawn to Alexander Valley for its volcanic soils and distinctive climate, which features cold nights contrasted by days that heat up as quickly as a Wolf oven. For this 100% Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 bottling, he harvested grapes from SJ Ranch in multiple passes. The site consists of a well-draining mix of volcanic “chalk,” polished stones, and gravel, and puts out intense, concentrated Cabs. He aged the wine in mostly new barrels from luxe coopers Darnajou, Boutes, Berger & Fils, Sylvain, and Taransaud.

The results speak for themselves in this spectacular Cabernet Sauvignon from one of California’s true superstars.