2018 Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Altagracia Napa Valley 750 ml

Before Kronos, before Martha’s, before To Kalon, there was Eisele Vineyard. When we talk about important Napa parcels, we always start here, just outside of Calistoga. Eisele Vineyard epitomizes why single-vineyard wines exist, because it offers a unique balance of elegance and power and stands alone in this part of the Valley for quality. It’s why Eisele Vineyard wines have been lighting up the scoreboards for decades. The 2018 Altagracia led James Suckling to call the wine a “Superb, new-wave Napa red” in his 97-point review. 

A Cab-dominant blend with support from Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, Altagracia offers almost all the depth and cellar-worthiness of Eisele’s flagship 100% Cabernet, but at 1/4th the price. Sourced entirely from the famed estate, no matter how you slice it, this is an incredible value Cabernet Sauvignon that will be beautiful on the table for the next decade or two. The wine draws you in with luxurious depth and texture, characterized by warm chocolate, mint, and Madagascar vanilla. There is a long finish that crescendoes with the essence of cigar box and graphite, all resolving in generous tannins. 

A blend of savory and blue-fruited aromas, this wine is ultra-complex, quickly pivoting from ripe fruit to earthy tones like mushroom and graphite. Rich and full in body with generous tannins and smooth oak notes, this is a classically made wine, from fruit grown in a near-perfect vintage.

The alluvial volcanic soils fanning out from the base of the Vaca Palisades offer terrific drainage, which translates first into low yields and then into concentrated character in the glass. Former owner Bart Araujo (Altagracia is named for his grandmother) loved how wines from here offered “weight but without heaviness.” The team at Château Latour (yes, that Latour) were so impressed with the high quality and individual character of the wines, as well as the methodical biodynamic farming that they chose Eisele Vineyard as their outpost in the Western Hemisphere.