2023 Field Signals Red Wine Sonoma County 750 ml

We knew it would be a groundbreaking deal–one of the best Sonoma buys in recent memory. But until the last moment, we weren’t sure if it was going to work out.

The source estate for this bottling occupies a legendary parcel of the Mayacamas Mountains range just west of Spring Mountain. Vinous’s Antonio Galloni calls this area “truly magical for Cabernet Sauvignon”—and singled this winery out as one of the North Coast’s most exciting. We’re no strangers to this idyllic corner of Sonoma either—it’s the same pedigreed terroir shared by Hidden Ridge, the source of some of Wine Access’s biggest best-sellers of all time!

The vintner is a 100-point critical darling and former Winemaker of the Year honoree who only works with the finest estates in Napa and Sonoma. The wine itself—as we gleaned from a late-afternoon barrel tasting—is a fabulous blend of power and finesse, drawn off verdant mountain slopes that are among the highest in the county.

Just one catch: This elite estate has a strict policy of only selling through its mailing list, with a few exceptions carved out for local establishments. Even though the winery had an oversupply of juice in 2023, the sales manager told us: “If the owner ever caught sight of our bottles on Wine-Searcher, she’d have my head!”

But having tasted this supple blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, and Cabernet Franc—classical in structure, seamless and lush in texture, not a stitch out of place—there was no going back. For an opportunity as rare and special as this one, we cooked up a brand-new private label to avoid compromising their brand. We called it Field Signals: a name appropriate to the wilderness that surrounds this high-elevation estate

Cloistered inside oak forests, the vineyards here reach nearly 2,000 feet in elevation. Warmed by sunny afternoons but cooler than the valley floor, the winemaking team here has the luxury of picking early without worrying about losing extract. They get the whole package: power, freshness, and edgy mountain tannins in every sip.