2011 Fourth Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Crafted by two Mondavis in minuscule four-barrel batches, Fourth Leaf Cabernet might be the ultimate Napa Valley insider wine—one you might never taste unless you count members of Napa Valley’s most revered winemaking family among your friends. That’s why we’re so grateful that our relationship with the Mondavis has secured us this library vintage release of their Cabernet, which combines the knowledge of two long-estranged sides of the family with two exclusive vineyards. 

Predictably, the results are exquisite.

This historic family collaboration is normally available only to Napa Valley insiders—but today that includes Wine Access members. 

The inaugural 2011 vintage of Fourth Leaf is dense and purple, and still showing powerful bright red and black fruit aromas, with complex notes of baking spice, pipe tobacco, oak moss, leather, and a firm tannic grip. Finishing long with flourishes of leather, earth, and allspice, it’s drinking like a dream now, and will be for the next five years.

Fewer than 200 cases were produced, so we don’t have to tell you how incredibly fortunate we are to have secured a share for Wine Access members—let alone at nearly 40% off. Don’t miss out on this Cabernet, which does no less than rewrite Napa Valley history.

A quick refresher on what is now Napa Valley lore: In 1943, the Mondavi family purchased the Charles Krug Winery. Brothers Peter and Robert Mondavi worked together for two decades before the relationship soured, and the pair parted ways. Peter stuck with Krug. Robert headed south to Oakville and founded the Robert Mondavi Winery. Separately, they pursued the same goal of producing world-class wine in the young Napa Valley, and both succeeded—Krug has stood as an icon for decades, and Robert Mondavi revolutionized California wine. But the split left one lingering question: What heights might have been achieved had both sides of America’s most storied winemaking family stayed together? 

It was one that would only be answered half a century later, when Angelina and Rob Mondavi, grandchildren of Peter and Robert respectively (and both esteemed vintners themselves), collaborated on a 27-liter bottle of wine for charity. They labeled it Siamo Insieme, which means “We Are Together” in Italian. The wine was phenomenal, and the name was a prophecy, because Angelina and Rob felt something that had been long lost between their sides of the family: the joy of making wine together. 

They went on to combine their talents in Fourth Leaf—the name is a nod to the generations of Mondavis who have made wine in Napa Valley—and brought much more than family history to the table. Angelina’s resume is stacked with famous names from all over the globe: She worked at Australian icon Yalumba, Napa Valley’s cult standard-bearer Hundred Acre, and as an assistant winemaker at icon Pine Ridge. She is now an in-demand consultant, working with Brasswood Cellars, Dark Matter Wines, Aloft Wine, and Castlevale. Rob is the leading winemaker at Michael Mondavi wines, and founder of the boutique brands Medusa and Spellbound. 

Fourth Leaf also brings together two family vineyards: Rob’s 15 acres on Atlas Peak, where the Cabernet vines planted in airy volcanic soils produce grapes with beautiful muscular tannins and structure, and the Rocky Ridge Vineyard on Howell Mountain, an undulating site 1,650 feet above the valley floor. At this elevation, the vines see neither cooling fog nor heat spikes, and produce soft, silky Cabernet with beautifully balanced acid and supple tannins. 

The combination of mountain grapes makes for a wine that begs for time in the cellar, and after nearly a decade of slumber, this duo of Cabernets is absolutely singing. This is a project that would be setting Napa Valley on fire, except they make less of this wine than most wineries send out as samples. Today, we invite you to take advantage of this historic collaboration, which isn’t available anywhere else.

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

• ABV 14.80%
• 15 mins
• Drink Up
• % Cabernet Sauvignon
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork