2018 Color & Sound Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain District Napa Valley 750 ml

After months of anticipation and negotiation, the colossus of one of Napa’s most prestigious AVAs is finally ours, and today it can be yours too. From a chart-topping vineyard on Spring Mountain that boasts a cult-like following, this is mountain Cabernet at its finest… without the mountain-appellation markup. 

The estate’s 96-point, $160 Cabernets are canonical Spring Mountain District releases, and like timeless bottles from Robert Keenan and Newton, they’re a huge part of the mythos of this glamorous appellation. Unfortunately, legal jargon and the depravity of mankind prevent us from sharing the iconic winery’s identity… but we want you to feel like you’re there.  

We’ve got two barrels-worth of Cabernet in our warehouse, hand-delivered from the historic 19th century Napa property described by Vinous as “spectacular,” and you can be sure we savored every sip of this 2018—the awesome power and fine-grained grip of this deep magenta Cabernet are everything we’ve always loved from the legendary winery. And here today, at a nearly-impossible under-$40 value, we bring you the pinnacle of mountain winemaking—a cult-level bottle that was served at a recent White House state dinner.

With each sip, you feel the shadows of the clouds floating across the mountain’s steep east-facing terraces, you smell the gravelly soils that inspire the baroque tannic frameworks, you hear the twittering of bluebirds that guard the vines. Most of all, you feel viscerally what an astounding deal is this for just $35 per bottle. There’s nowhere else you’ll find a staggering 78% discount on a Napa Cabernet of this aristocratic caliber.

To help convey all this, we called our friend Alexis. As previous Color and Sound buyers know, she is a synesthete. That means she doesn’t just taste wine—she sees and hears it, and also happens to describe it in the most glorious terms. And for the first single-appellation mountain release in the series and what might be the greatest Color and Sound release yet, we figured we needed her special talents.

“Warm opalescent blues and mauves…” she started. “It’s the hue of a briary blackberry patch showered by purple rain.” We gazed into the glass as her words echoed in our heads. She took a sip, and maybe 20 seconds later, eyes still closed, started tapping one fingernail against the side of the glass. “It has a sound too, a low, harmonious hum opening up into a bright chorus, brassy, warm and enveloping, like the Dona nobis pacem from Bach’s Mass in B Minor.”

Finally, she opened her eyes. “I can feel a breeze tickling my ankles,” she said. “This is from a very high place, isn’t it.” 

We thought for a moment about the legendary mountain site, then reached out and clinked glasses with Alexis. “We can’t think of one higher.”