2023 Method Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

If you are in the wine business in Northern California—or if you’ve seen the movie Somm—you know the name Ian Cauble. He first gained fame as one of the aspiring Master Sommeliers in that seminal documentary, and he’s since earned a reputation as a savvy all-around player in the wine world. Retail, online, club—Ian Cauble, MS (yes, he passed the test) has done it all.

Method is the label under which Cauble and winemaker Trevor Sheehan make and bottle some of the biggest values you’ll see in Napa Valley. The two founded Method in 2016 out of a shared admiration for the great wines of Bordeaux, with the goal of producing Napa Cabernet of genuine quality at a price that would make people do a double-take.

Sheehan’s track record speaks for itself. He is the winemaker behind some of the greatest Cabernet values that Wine Access members have ever seen: Gait, Decoded, Timeline—the list goes on. Needless to say, with decades in the trade between them, these two have some spectacular vineyard connections across the Valley.

Method draws on a combination of estate vineyards and purchased fruit sourced from across Napa Valley. The 2023 is a proper Bordeaux-style blend: 87% Cabernet Sauvignon with Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, and Merlot rounding it out. Sheehan aged the wine 18 months in 100% new oak—half French, half American—giving it the structure and depth to compete well above its price.

The 2023 vintage is emerging as one of the best Napa Valley has seen in recent memory. A delayed budbreak gave way to a long, temperate growing season, with winemakers reporting optimal ripeness, extraordinary phenolic maturity, and the kind of natural acidity that gives wines their tension and longevity. More than one observer has called it a once-in-a-lifetime vintage—the sort of season that produces wines capable of aging gracefully for decades.

The result earned 95 points from James Suckling, who praised the wine’s dark fruit and chocolate aromatics, velvety tannins, and the tension and elegance that define the 2023 vintage. That kind of score, from a true Napa Valley Cabernet, at this price, is genuinely rare.