2018 Wolfe Grade Cabernet Sauvignon Spring Mountain Napa Valley

Celebrities do it all the time. 

They venture into the world thinking black baseball caps and big shades will keep them anonymous. But true star quality is tough to tame, which is why anyone who catches a glimpse immediately knows they’re looking at Brad or Leo or Julia. 

The label on today’s Wolfe Grade Cab is the black baseball cap of the wine world. Sure, it can obscure the identity of the wine inside until the moment it hits your glass—at which point it’s impossible to ignore the bold power that’s made Spring Mountain famous.

Home to names like Pride, Robert Keenan, and Cain, Spring Mountain’s steep slopes guarantee two things: dramatically intense mountain fruit and price tags that connote luxury. This wine has both—or would have both, if its original label and a $150 price tag were still attached.

Instead, an inch-thick NDA and the Wolfe Grade label let us pretend that it’s just another value Cabernet—one that’s a bargain even by our NDA standards. Don’t be fooled.

It’s hard to imagine a more famous property on Spring Mountain—it’s practically synonymous with the AVA. We’ve been trying for ages to secure wine from this estate: We must have made a half-dozen pitches over the last five years, but were rebuffed each time. Eventually our perseverance—and word of mouth from other wineries who’ve seen what we’ve done with NDA-protected juice—paid off.

Hailing from the picture-perfect 2018 vintage—Wine Spectator doesn’t think there’s ever been a better year in Napa—this Wolfe Grade is everything you need in a bottle of wine suitable for the most special of occasions. Thanks to its black baseball cap, though, it’s priced like an everyday Joe.

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

• ABV 14.90%
• 15 mins
• Now – 2028
• 75% Cabernet Sauvignon10% Cabernet Franc7% Petit Verdot4% Malbec4% Merlot
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork