2016 Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon Hirondelle Vineyard Stags Leap District Napa Valley (1.5 L)

There’s just one Napa winery that can claim to have helped catapult California from obscurity to fame with its FIRST vintage: Clos du Val. 

Since its debut 1972 release—the one featured in the fabled Judgment of Paris tasting—Clos du Val has been an icon of Napa Valley Cabernet, and their 2016 Hirondelle Vineyard does them proud, boasting a 96-point score that puts it in the same league as their much pricier Three Graces bottling. 

Wine Enthusiast named it a Cellar Selection with 96 points, praising the “supple, lengthy tannins.” Jeb Dunnuck, in his rave, called it “a brilliant bottle of Cabernet” that’s “rich, full-bodied, beautifully concentrated and deep.”

For a potentially historic vintage like 2016 in Napa, nothing beats a statement-making magnum. If you’ve got cellaring in mind, big bottles like this age more slowly and gracefully, developing magnificent nuance and complexity over time due to reduced oxygen exposure. However, feel free to crack it open now—either way, it’s guaranteed to add a “wow factor” to your dinner table

Hirondelle is Clos Du Val’s signature, estate vineyard, and it’s named for the famous swallows that settle there every spring (swallow=hirondelle in French). The birds descend on the vineyard, help the vines out by feasting on all the bugs and pests, then decamp in July, just as the fruit starts to come in. 

Hirondelle enjoys invigorating breezes coming from San Pablo Bay, nurturing a natural acidity that shines through in this release, a worthy descendant of the long line of Clos du Val’s game-changing Cabernets.

This is the kind of bottle that Napa Cab lovers live for—a grandiose, unforgettable must-have for any cellar.

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

• ABV 14.50%
• 15 mins
• Now – 2028
• % Cabernet Sauvignon
• Serving temperature – 62°
• Cork