2023 The Forbidden Trail Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley 750 ml

We’ve never been this sore in pursuit of a deal. Sure, we’ve gluttoned our way through some marathon barbeque and wine evenings—and even an early morning bike ride into the Vaca Mountains—to properly prove our merit to a potential source. 

But horses? On that front, we’re a bit more Billy Crystal than John Wayne, and by the third hour of our trail ride, we were in agony. Muscles we didn’t even know we had were on fire and there were blisters… well, it was good that we had standing desks for answering emails the next day. 

We’d love to tell you we’d never quit in pursuit of the prize. In this case, we were still over two hours of riding from the barn, so we couldn’t have called it even if we wanted to. But Kim and her team are the wizards behind Primrose Trail, some of the most popular NDA-protected bottles in our history, and we knew the only reason she was hazing us this badly was that there’d be something extra special at the end of the ride.

Once we dismounted and set up for lunch, she produced a bottle and a set of stems—and once we saw the label, we got her joke. “You’ve gotta pay the price if you want to ride The Forbidden Trail,” she cracked, enjoying the payoff

The second that we smelled the wine, though, we knew all the discomfort that day—and what we knew was coming tomorrow—was absolutely worth it. The wine is dark ruby in the glass and gorgeous on the nose, with layered blackberry and warmed cherry scenes enveloping a touch of tobacco, lavender, and licorice. Absolutely classic Alexander Valley signatures. The palate is boisterous, an absolute party of flavor, with a lush texture that helps moderate its clear power.

When Kim leaned over and whispered the source of the grapes, it all made sense. “But you’ll never be able to tell anyone,” she said, “if you want to keep selling these wines.” We demanded the first access to the wine on the spot—and if we sell out, you won’t ever see it anywhere else.