An organic winegrowing star’s secret Cabernet bottling
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2020 Shannon Ridge 13 Rams Cabernet Sauvignon Lake County 750 ml
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
Some of Napa’s Biggest Names Flock Here
“What the heck is that?!”
Our Master Sommelier, Sur Lucero, was wrapping up a tour of Clay Shannon’s expansive estate overlooking Clear Lake in the High Valley of Lake County. He couldn’t help but notice the steep, perfectly exposed vineyard above him, catching the last rays of evening sunlight.
“Oh that vineyard? That parcel goes into 13 Rams Cabernet.”
Named for the lucky 13 rams on Clay Shannon’s organic farm who, along with their 1,000 ewes, are responsible for weed control, 13 Rams is the destination for some of Shannon’s very best fruit, from his holdings in both the Red Hills and High Valley AVAs.
This wine is exceptional—a 100% estate-grown, organic, black-fruited blockbuster that shows exactly why Napa Valley icons, like grower Andy Beckstoffer, are flocking to Lake County.
Shannon’s plan for growth is not rooted in branding or marketing, but in the land itself. He has created a self-sustaining, certified organic farm that requires little in the way of agricultural inputs from outside his property. No herbicides are used, and Clay’s herd of sheep graze through the carbon-trapping cover crops that intersperse the rows of vines and also enrich the soil with manure.
Bottom line? Clay Shannon has enough fruit on his ranch to make 500,000 cases of wine a year, but he only bottles a small fraction of that—and the very best fruit in that slice goes into his 13 Rams and OVIS wines. His customers for grapes include one of Napa’s biggest names, who puts them in his $60+ California Cabernet Sauvignon. To score some of Clay’s best fruit in this, his own bottling, at this price? That’s nothing short of a coup.