2016 Anderson Conn Valley Vineyards Aurum

Metallica and ACV’s Best-Ever Cabernet

Last time we visited Todd Anderson and his crew at Anderson Conn Valley, they disappeared. Five minutes passed. Then ten. We helped ourselves to a few extra sips from the barrels, until the guys reappeared. They had gone off to… score Metallica tickets.

Safe to say these guys—who have turned ACV Cabernets into Wine Access favorites and consistent 95+-point performers over thirty years—are different. They’re slightly more into heavy metal than your average vintners. And when the job calls for it, they pull full-weekenders at the winery, sleeping bags and all.

But here’s the one thing they have in common with all the best vintners in Napa: They’re shooting for perfection. Always. And on the day they gathered in the cellar to taste the 2016 Anderson Conn Valley Aurum, they knew they had achieved something they had never achieved before.

And then the critics weighed in, and agreed. 98+ points from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate made the Aurum one of the magazine’s top 50 Napa Cabernets of the 2016 vintage, and the top-scoring wine in ACV’s 30-year history. The Advocate could hardly pack all the glowing descriptors of Aurum into one review. They praised its “achingly beautiful nose of candied violets, lilacs and rose hip tea over a core of blackcurrant cordial, Black Forest cake and fresh wild blueberries,” as well as the wine’s “wonderfully plush, fine-grained texture and great vibrancy,” and “epic length and depth.”

There was no doubt that this bottling—what they boldly called a “moon shot”—was something special. That was the point. They wanted to show that their 40-acre estate just south of Howell Mountain could produce Cabernet as regal as site any in Napa Valley, bar none. But since they wanted to offer their most loyal drinkers a ne plus ultra Cabernet without robbing their regular bottlings of their best wine, they limited themselves. They would make a mere 100 cases worth, just four barrels, every one of them new. Among the ACV team, there was no disputing that this was the most flat-out decadent Cabernet they could produce: one that belongs in the cellars of not only their loyal Cabernet lovers, but the collectors who happily shell out for Bond, Harlan, and the marquee names of Napa Valley.

Aurum has existed as an idea for twenty-five years, and Todd loved the idea of using Au, the symbol for gold, to designate a top wine. But they never were inspired to take the plunge 2015, when the fantastic vintage begged for a special bottling. It garnered 96 points right out of the gate. The 2016 Aurum has taken it to the next level—where the Schraders and the Vice Versas and the Lokoyas dwell—by showing that Todd, the crew at Anderson Conn Valley, and their corner of Napa Valley being second to none. The 2016 Aurum is bottled 98+-point proof.

Because of our special relationship with Todd and ACV, we’ve got an allocation. It represents a  sliver of their Cabernet production, and one we’re excited to share with you, so you can put it right where it belongs, alongside the most sought-after and decadent Cabernets in your collection.

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

• ABV 14.90%
• 1 hour
• Now – 2030
• % Cabernet Sauvignon
• Serving temperature – 58°
• Cork