2019 JennaMarise Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

There are Napa Cabernets that exist because someone saw a market opportunity. And then there are wines like this one.

Jenna and Mara York—twin sisters, co-owners of the San Francisco 49ers, and the founders of JennaMarise—didn’t start a wine label because they needed to. They started one because they’d spent two decades learning how to do it properly: summers at Joseph Phelps, Groth, and Spring Mountain; a harvest at Viña Cobos in Mendoza under Paul Hobbs; time with Philippe Melka at the launch of Tusk Estates. By the time they made their first wine, they knew exactly what they wanted and had the resources to go get it.

What they wanted was a Calistoga Cabernet with serious bones. The northernmost valley-floor appellation in Napa, Calistoga sits on volcanic bedrock with the valley’s most extreme diurnal swings. That range produces ripe, concentrated dark fruit with the acid retention and structure that makes a wine worth putting down. The sisters had been watching these vineyards for over 20 years before the first cluster was picked.

To make it, they called Bob Foley—15 years as founding winemaker at Markham Vineyards, another 15 at Pride Mountain, and Wine Advocate Winemaker of the Year in 2007. He works out of an extensive cave system on Howell Mountain, where more than 1,500 barrels age under his watch. One of the great Cabernet winemakers alive.

The 2019 vintage was ideal: a cool, extended growing season produced full flavors at lower sugars, bright acidity, and unusually fine tannin structure. Foley made the wine as 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, Clone 7, aging it 20 months in French oak. Then JennaMarise waited—28 months in bottle before a case left the building.

We have exclusive access to their cellar stock. The wine pours at Levi’s Stadium, appears on the list at Michael Mina, and holds a place at Archie’s Waeside, a James Beard Award-winning restaurant in Iowa. It isn’t widely available outside those channels.

The 2019 opens slowly—violet and lilac giving way to black cherry, Damson plum, and cassis, with Madagascar vanilla and Claro tobacco threading through a muscular, concentrated frame. The tannins are firm and built for time. The finish is long and doesn’t quit.