2019 Chad Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

“We all knew it at harvest,” Chad told us outside the Napa Valley Coffee Roasting Company. “No matter which vineyards I walked, the 2019 harvest was picture perfect. Plenty of fruit. Small berries which promised a high skin-to-juice ratio. Sweet fruit with ripe seeds. I locked into seven lots from great sources in March 2020, at reasonable prices. Like my grandad used to say, I was dancing a jig.” 

Chad paused. “Six months later,” he started, “let’s just say I knew I’d made the right moves.”

When the 2019s were harvested, Napa Valley winemakers were licking their chops, even as they scrambled to find space for all the grapes. Despite the fabulous quality, prices plummeted in mid-harvest as growers found themselves with more tiny berry clusters than buyers—and Chad seized the moment. He signed contracts for finished wines from a Who’s Who of Napa Valley.

“I was all set by April. Quality was incredible. Even darker and richer than '16, if also softer and rounder, Cabernets that will drink beautifully out of the gate, but also age effortlessly. Bottling dates were lined up for Q4 2020, just when the heatwave began. Then the winds began to blow.”

2020 was one of the most harrowing seasons California’s ever seen. As it became clear that the bounty of 2019 would be offset by a stringbean-thin 2020, Chad’s stack of 2019 contracts turned into pure gold.  

“You could call it luck…” Chad smiled. “But I call it decisiveness—looking at that ‘19 harvest, I knew I had to get all I could. Fast forward a year, when everyone realized that almost no one would have extra fruit in 2020, I looked like a genius. Then I heard that some top wineries were trying to claw back their 2019 contracts…”

That was when Chad’s phone started ringing. “A few clients, guys I’ve known for years, wanted out, so I let ‘em. No hard feelings. But there were three lots that I was never gonna let go. One from Stags Leap. One from the Rutherford-Oakville line. And this one, from a winery halfway up Howell Mountain Road.”

Not surprisingly, the 2019 CHAD Cabernet Sauvignon is a blockbuster, speaking to both the vintage and its Howell Mountain Road roots. Deep purple, with plush aromas of ripe, crushed blackberries, incense, and forest floor, it’s rich and pliant on the attack, plus lavishly concentrated in the mid-palate, finishing with sneaky tannins that argue for several years of cellar age.  

This is the kind of bargain blockbuster that has made Chad a cult winemaker among Wine Access members. He’s as good as getting top grapes as anyone we’ve ever known in the Valley, but looking ahead a year, all he sees is a big question mark. 

Luckily, his 2019 is in the bottle and ready to go. It goes for $90 under a far more recognizable label. Today, it's yours for much less.