2022 Off the Cuff Cabernet Sauvignon Calistoga Napa Valley

Off the Cuff: It’s a label we reserve for true lightning-strike deals—the kind that materialize when  deep connections, right-place-right-time fortune, and the decisiveness of an F1 driver all come together. 

These wines represent some of the biggest bargains we get—and we scored an absolute whopper in the 2022 Off the Cuff Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley. 

It’s sourced from a name that’s exceptionally familiar to lovers of bold, concentrated Napa bottles—but it’s hard to talk about them without giving things away completely. Robert Parker absolutely raved about them in the 90s, calling them his “discovery of the year” the first time he tried them. Since then, he’s praised them for their “pedal-to-the-metal” bottles, which are hedonistic and layered.

One thing that’s stayed the same at the winery over the years has been an exceptionally loyal mailing list: If the winery had held onto these barrels, bottled and labeled them as their normal single-vineyard releases, they’d surely get plucked up instantly.

Calistoga is at Napa’s north end, far from the fog that rolls in from San Pablo bay and cools southerly areas like Oak Knoll or Coombsville. The sunrise-to-sunset warmth this creates—and the resulting richness it provides wines—has been prized for Cabernet growers since Chateau Montelena was established over 140 years ago.

That’s on prime display here, and it’s even hard for us to believe we get to offer this kind of pedigree for the price—NDA or not.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.90%
• 1 hour
• Now – 2034
• 89% Cabernet Sauvignon11% Malbec
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork