2018 Band of Vintners Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

Seamlessly integrated and masterfully balanced, the 2018 Band of Vintners is the kind of Napa Cab you seldom see going for less than $100 these days, let alone under $50. That’s why we’d bet that anyone you share a sip with will be shocked when you tell them you paid just $37.

This is the best value 92-point Napa Cabernet Wine Advocate has rated from the 2018 vintage—the latest iteration of a wine that one Wine Access member said, “tastes like a $100 Cab for sure.” This is the bottle you’ll want to blind-taste a friend on, and see if they can guess the price—or even come close. 

We think they’ll be way off, because the nose alone places the 2018 Band of Vintners alongside wines that command three digits. It’s an intoxicating buffet of red currant and blackberry, accented by Claro tobacco, cedar, and spicy herbal aromas. Already integrated and open on the palate, the Cabernet shows ripe black cherry and blackberry fruit, followed by complex hints of matcha and tobacco. It’s all carried by firm, crunchy tannins that melt over a one-minute finish—normally another indicator of a forbidding price tag.

Although the price comes as a shock, the quality doesn’t, especially when you realize that the Band of Vintners comes from one of Napa’s most impressive teams ever assembled. It’s the work of seven Napa Valley luminaries, including 2017 SF Chronicle Winemaker of the Year Dan Petroski—the 100-point talent behind Massican and Larkmead—and Long Meadow Ranch’s Stéphane Vivier, a protégé of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s Aubert de Villaine.

They lead an Avengers-level team of wine professionals, highlighted by Decanter in a feature on “The New Names to Know in Napa.” Each member brings singular skills and abilities to the table. In addition to Petroski and Vivier, the team includes Harlan alum and Master Sommelier Jason Heller, Spring Mountain Vineyard winemaker Barrett Anderson, Folio Fine Wine Partners VP Brennan Anderson, Anomaly Vineyards winemaker Mark Porembski, and Christie’s auction house veteran Cameron Hobel, who works with superstar vintner Thomas Rivers Brown at Hobel Wines.

The group originally convened to taste wines and trade industry insights over potluck meals. With time, they discovered that the seven of them, with their unmatched access to the best fruit and farmers in the business, could leverage those connections to make the kind of wine they wanted to pour most nights: a bottle that drinks like $120, but costs under $40.

In 2014 they launched the Consortium Cabernet Sauvignon, and instantly gained attention for bringing Napa richness and balance in a bottle that stands as one of the best values on the market. Three years later, their supergroup has earned legions of fans—many of them at Wine Access—for bringing the best of Napa to the weeknight kitchen table at $37 a pop.