2018 Yesterday Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

Take a stab at naming three or four of the greatest, most iconic, most famous estates you can think of in Napa.

The winery we sourced this fruit from is one of them—the apogee of classic Oakville terroir.

They produce quite literally a cult Cabernet: It has a mailing list that’s impossible to get on unless you know a guy; several 100-point scores in recent memory; placement in every steakhouse worth its salt; and bottle prices that start at $500 and climb skyward. 

You might actually guess all that just from sniffing this bottle blind. As one of our team members put it, this 2018 just smells expensive: delicate strains of vanilla hint at the new French oak aging regimen, topped up with toasty, rich black fruit. Broad and bold on entry, the palate is weighty and smooth, densely packed with super-fine tannins, followed by a cleansing wash of acidity. The deep fruit core bursts with black cherry and blueberry, accented with an undercurrent of tobacco and cocoa.

Every aspect down to the glossy, saturated purple hue indicates the intense dedication of an estate famous around the world for not neglecting a single detail of quality on their hillside vineyards. For most California Cabernet fanatics, a bottle from here would be considered the crown jewel of their collection, bar none. 

But strange things can happen in the topsy-turvy, Alice-in-Wonderland world of sourcing and supply and demand in Napa. Frankly even we were shocked when the opportunity to buy this wine arose; it’s the sort of thing we might have joked about when first starting this company—a lasso-the-moon moment. Thanks to some providential timing, a well-placed friend, and a bumper 2018 crop, we’re able to offer a few of our members a slice of this unbelievable Napa icon at $37 a bottle, or $32 on cases. With the label locked behind the NDA to end all NDAs, it might be the Napa deal of the century.

Ever wish you could freeze and perfectly preserve a moment in time—say, dinner at Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli on its last night of service? That’s what a wine like this one does with special brilliance and clarity. The 2018 Yesterday Cabernet Sauvignon captures the specific expression of a season from a legendary Napa estate, imprinted with the personality of the land and winemaker, shaped even by the day when the grapes were crushed. For all those temporal inflections, there’s something timeless here as well. Like all classics, Cabernets like this one never go out of style.

The tension and contrasts in the glass—elegant yet bold, rich yet balanced—are a direct reflection of the land. Vineyards were planted decades ago at places where open plains and hills meet wild woodlands: border zones teeming with life, lending this wine a coiled energy. All exposures—northern, eastern, southern, western—are represented among their acres, leading to a unique complexity in the glass.

Without much topsoil, the root structures of vines descend as low as 30 feet, picking up impressions from soils and minerals at different depths. More importantly, the deeper the vines go, the less they are influenced by dramatic fluctuations year to year, enabling this estate to deliver a rare degree of consistency and quality that commands top dollar on the market.

Compared to more recent vintages, 2018 in Napa was calm and uniformly excellent, without heat spikes or late surprises. Slow and steady ripening filled grapes to the brim with vibrancy and power, with Cabernet in particular showing effortless balance. Crops levels came in often 20% higher than expected.

That’s how we got our foot in the door at the place many consider the last word in cult Napa Cabernets. Today, NDA discretion goes a long way: less than $40 a bottle for a legend of the valley.