2014 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Imperial

With Silver Oak, we take our relationship with the Duncan family quite seriously, so whenever Matt calls about meeting, we drop everything and oblige him—and that’s exactly what happened and led to this rare allocation.

At 5:30 p.m. sharp, we rode the elevator up to the top floor of the Archer Hotel in downtown Napa. Matt was already sitting at a table, talking with Nate Weis, Silver Oak & Twomey’s Vice President of Wine Growing. He greeted us with his usual warm smile as we eyed a bottle of 2014 Silver Oak Napa Cabernet already decanting. “Have a seat,” he said. Grinning, he poured the inky-black elixir into our glasses. “Mind if we have some wine?”  

Coming from Wine Spectator’s “dream” vintage, the 2014 release is Nate Weis’s inaugural take on this standard-bearer—and talk about a fantastic wine: The wine exudes a lifted freshness with fantastic black-fruit aromas tinged with fresh sage and rosemary, and delivers a full-bodied and luxurious mouthfeel, with expansive flavors of wild blackberries, plum, and cassis, finishing with Silver Oak’s classic American-oak spice and just a hint of cocoa and vanilla.

Live music underscored, and sometimes drowned out our conversation. At one point, Vanessa Conlin, our head of wine, asked Nate how he would describe Silver Oak to someone who is new to the brand. “We make the quintessential American wine,” was his reply. “It’s American-made, American-owned, from the epicenter of America’s wine country, and aged only in American oak.”

“We strive for a balance of consistency and evolution,” Weis added, which struck us not only as insightful but as a powerful statement. Silver Oak isn’t resting on its laurels. The Duncans make one of the most consistent Cabernets known to Napa, but they’re pushing the envelope on evolving with the times by employing things like sonar-like technology to evaluate soil texture, precision irrigation, making their own barrels, and building the only two wineries to ever earn a LEED Platinum certification (both Silver Oak Alexander Valley & Napa Valley; innovations led by Matt’s sister, Haley Duncan)—all to ensure continued, successful family ownership.

As the last drops from the decanter trickled out into glasses, Nate let us in on one juicy story: “I wore a suit and tie to my interview and Matt’s uncle, CEO & Proprietor David Duncan, just looked at me and said, ‘What the hell are you wearing?’”

We begged to hear more about Nate’s experience joining one of Napa’s most revered and iconic wineries. But he demurred. “I’m more of an introverted kind of guy,” he said with a wry smile. “But the company culture at Silver Oak brings out the best in me—I’ll dance on stage for fun around the team,” he admitted. We get it—for an imperial of this stunning 2014 release, we’d gladly get up and dance.

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

• ABV 13.90%
• 1 hour
• Now – 2035
• % Cabernet Sauvignon
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork