2018 Cosmologist Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley Sonoma County 750 ml

Lightning doesn’t usually strike twice, and we didn’t think we’d be lucky enough to see the Cosmologist Cabernet again—especially not at the same double-take price as the previous vintage.

An overnight member-favorite, we’re thrilled that the 2018 shares the same voluptuous elegance, concentration, minerality, and mountain spice as its predecessor, as well as the $175 Cabs made from its famous estate’s vines, which Robert Parker himself has called “terrific, full-throttle, beautifully balanced and pure… Cabernets that deserve serious attention.”

This is an estate known for its limited-production 95+ point Cabs that sell out immediately upon release, one of the few Sonoma County sites that can lure 100-point consultants outside Napa’s borders. Incredibly, the 2018 Cosmologist Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the most meticulously farmed parcel in that same vineyard, and once again, we scored the exclusive allocation at over 80% off the standard retail for its estate wines.

Cosmologist is tinged with all the spice and minerality of its triple-digit-priced big brother, but in a vintage like 2018—deemed “spectacular” by the Wine Advocate—it benefitted from an unusually long, cool growing season. The result is an even more complex, dynamic, and beautifully textured wine than we were already anticipating.  

Aromas of cassis, dark cherry, and plum burst from the bottle, while notes of tar and black olive hint at the complexity to come. The high-toned palate is impressively polished, laden with concentrated primary fruit, dark chocolate, and a dusting of spice that’s woven through with silky tannins. Beautifully integrated yet tightly wound, the mouthwatering finish lingers on a lifted note that inspires multiple repeat sips and ensures at least a decade of longevity in the cellar.

We’ll never forget the first time we visited this 200-acre vineyard with its manager: We were accompanied by our friend, a Food & Wine Winemaker of the Year who serves as the estate’s consultant, and our VIP client, a nine-time Grammy award winner with over 125 million albums sold. The latter was so impressed by the Cosmologist he put a serious dent in our initial allocation, but we could hardly blame him—even we mistook our friend’s passion project for one of the super-allocated estate Cabs.

Farmed biodynamically—in the same method as the world’s top estates, like Pontet-Canet, Cristal Champagne, and Domaine Leroy—we couldn’t wrap our heads around how such a time- and cost-intensive enterprise could result in an under-$30 bottling, let alone a Cabernet from one of the few sites known for seducing 100-point consultants.

Biodynamic farming blends organics with the surrounding land’s biodiversity, and follows cosmic cycles, planting and harvesting based on the alignments of the moon, planets, and stars. To the uninitiated, biodynamics can sound a lot like mysticism. To us, it signifies the extreme dedication paid to every last inch of a vineyard. In the 2018 Cosmologist, that attention to detail is palpable in its verve—a hallmark of great Cabernet.

We were mystified, however, when our VIP client suddenly interrupted the vineyard manager’s rapid-fire exposition on herbal remedies and buried cow horns to say, “Hold up, I think I get biodynamics. It’s like brown M&Ms.”

He elaborated how, in the 1980s, Van Halen required bowls of M&M's backstage at their concerts, demanding removal of all the brown ones. People assumed it was a weird superstition or run-of-the-mill rock star ridiculousness, but front-man David Lee Roth later revealed how the stipulation—which was buried deep in the rider—was a test to determine how thoroughly the contract had been reviewed. If he found brown M&Ms in the bowl, it meant the promoter may have missed more critical small details, which foretold potentially dangerous problems with the stage set-up.

“So, biodynamics is like the brown M&M rule. Whether or not all the astrological woo-woo makes scientific sense, it forces you to pay a zillion times closer attention to the vineyard than you’d need to with a regular farming contract. Which is why this Cab is so awesome.”

Actually… yeah.

Apparently, the estate winery had been tentative about the expense and labor that biodynamics would require, so our friend cordoned off a small section of their vineyard to use as a test pilot. Amazingly, the winery’s marketing plan still has yet to position it, so our friend was able to buy the fruit for pennies once again and bottle it under his Cosmologist label.

After selling out of the 2017 almost immediately, he gave us first dibs on his 2018, and we took it all before he even finished his question. We hadn’t counted on another vintage of this killer biodynamic Cab, and you shouldn’t either. Because once those Alexander Valley marketing minds finally get wise, you can bet that the Cosmologist fruit will eventually (rightfully) be folded into one of its estate’s highest-end bottlings—with a price to match.