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Cabernet Sauvignon

Napa Valley’s flagship varietal. Many places grow it, none do it better.

Rivers Marie Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon label

Napa Valley

This bottling has consisted of new sites we are trialing, declassified barrels from single vineyard wines and vineyards that fell out of contract along the way. It’s a diverse mix but the common thread is there has always been a minimum of 4 sub-AVAs represented in every edition giving a broad geographic view into the vintage as a whole. This has always been an early drinker giving reason to open this wine before the single vineyards to get a greater understanding of what lies ahead in the more expensive, site driven bottlings.

Panek Vineyard

Our small 5 acre piece of this northern St Helena vineyard is really where our Cabernet program found its launching point. Consisting of 5 one acre blocks across 5 different clones, this old creek bed site features a wild spectrum of red, blue and black fruits veering from generously fruited in more giving years to brooding and deep in the small berry, drier vintages. We started here in 2008 and hope to continue with this as our anchor for many years to come. Given all the different blocks, this vineyard provides plenty of material for its own blend but also routinely doubles as the base for our Napa blend.

Calistoga

Coming from one of the great unnamed (at least on the label) vineyards in the upvalley, we feel privileged to source two older vine, heritage clones blocks from this site on the south side of Larkmead Lane. We are always struck by the savory elements contained within, black olive, walnut husks, violets and sandalwood suggest a wine maybe from a different part of the world but instead harken to maybe the most site specific Napa wine we bottle every year.

Oakville Terraces Vineyard

We changed the labeling for Lore to Oakville Terraces in 2019 to return to its original name when it was planted 20+ years ago. The greatness of the site and our love for the wine remains unchanged as we continue to improve farming, vine health and winemaking technique as we hit our 10 year anniversary with this vineyard.

Herb Lamb Vineyard

I’ve followed the wines from this site since the first ever Colgin bottling from the early 90s. From there it was the Karl Lawrence wines and then Herb and Jennifer’s own HL label continuing the greatness of this 4.5 acre block in the low part of the eastern St Helena hills. The idea of ever making wine from this vineyard seemed preposterous until Jennifer called in the spring of 2016 saying some fruit may be available. We jumped at the chance to work with what turned out to be an amazing 5 ton center cut of this legendary site. In 2018 we signed a lease to farm and make wine from Herb Lamb for the foreseeable future. After losing the vineyard to a devastating fire in 2020, it was immediately replanted to its original footprint and we have excitedly signed another lease to continue with the site for many years to come.

Lore Vineyard

Sometimes you just have to get lucky and that adage is what led us to Lore. Through a series of old acquaintances and near perfect timing, this A+, 2 acre vineyard in the eastern hills of Oakville fell into our laps in 2013. The site features the burnt orange, oxidized iron complexion of the Oakville hills full of rock and near impenetrable soil. The wines we’ve produced from here carry an almost ethereal aromatic before giving way to black fruit, white flowers and crushed rock. The biggest surprise here has always been the refinement of tannin and persistence of fruit we see in the finish. This was a bit of a project when we first started with the vineyard but some extra effort and a finely tuned attention to detail has allowed this to become the current star in our Cabernet line up.

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