2023 Martellotto Cabernet Sauvignon La Bomba Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara 750 ml

Santa Barbara conjures images of cool, windswept, foggy hills—perfect for Pinot and Chard. But if you know precisely where to look, there are pockets that are ideally suited to Cabernet.

Those microclimates don’t just produce good Cab. They produce stellar bottles like the 2023 Martellotto La Bomba. Made from Dierberg’s Star Lane Vineyard—which produces Cabs that trade for well upwards of $150—this is a bold, rich, ripe bottle whose intense flavors and silky tannins earned a super-solid 95-point score from Decanter magazine. 

The secret behind the Martellotto La Bomba’s bold, emphatic personality is actually two: An ideal vineyard and a winemaker who’s not afraid to push Cabernet to its bombastic potential.

Start with the site: Star Lane Vineyard was planted by Jim and Mary Dierberg, one of the most important families in Santa Barbara wine. While most of their estate is ideally suited to Pinot and Chardonnay production, Star Lane is a higher-elevation paradox that’s actually better for Cabernet.

Star Lane sits above the fog line that defines so much Santa Barbara viticulture, so it gets sunlight from early morning until sunset, warming up quickly and accelerating ripening. The area isn’t ever hot, per se, but it does enjoy a mild winter and a long, long growing season, which allows the Cabernet planted there to reach a dramatic maturity with waves of ripe fruit flavors thanks to many days of sun.

Vintner Greg Martellotto is willing to take advantage of all that the heavens allow. His house style is one that emphasizes powerful wines and rich flavors, and this is his calling card—he named this bottle “The Bomb” for a reason. He picks when the grapes are properly ripe, then extracts plenty of richness during a carefully managed fermentation, before aging in French oak, with a healthy splash of new wood, for 18 months. 

That polishes La Bomba’s tannins to a supple sheen and imparts a patina of cocoa powder, warm spices, and mocha to the dark cherry, blackberry, and blueberry compote flavors. We were thrilled to taste this at HQ—and even more thrilled to take the leftovers home and drink them with a couple burgers off the grill.