2018 Keplinger Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Ranch Vineyard Oakville Napa Valley 750 ml

The rocky red benchlands of the northeast corner of Oakville are home to some of the greatest Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards on the planet, with the $500+ price tags to match. 

Oakville Ranch looms high above them all—literally. Blessed with ruddy soil and andesite rocks, it’s the highest-altitude vineyard in Oakville AVA, looking down over the likes of Rudd, Phelps Backus, and Tench Vineyards.

In 2018, Helen Keplinger—a Food & Wine Winemaker of the Year who once made cult wines for Grace Family and Bryant—sculpted fruit from this phenomenal vineyard into a collector’s item for the cellar. The 2018 vintage—which Wine Spectator rated as Napa’s best in over 20 years—had a hand in it too.

Our friendship with Helen means we can offer the pearl of her portfolio: the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Ranch Vineyard. It’s a collectible that deeply impressed critic Jeb Dunnuck, who anointed it with a 99-point rating, matching the highest score he’s ever given a Keplinger wine—outscoring luminaries like Schrader’s Beckstoffer To Kalon and Plumpjack Reserve Cabernet. 

The organically farmed Oakville Ranch lies just below the southern edge of Pritchard Hill, encompasses many microclimates, and tends to produce balanced wines. It’s also a favorite of star winemakers like Andy Erickson and Rosemary Cakebread, who both make their Oakville Cabernets from these coveted grapes.

In 2018, Helen turned the peerless grapes from this site into an extraordinary Cabernet that boasts beautiful black and red fruit, along with impressive length and a gorgeous texture. As Dunnuck put it, it’s “another incredible wine from this winemaker.” 

Drink this one now or age it another 20 years—any time you pull a cork, you and your guests are going to be starstruck.