“This extraordinary winery continues to produce some of Napa’s most distinguished Cabernets.” – Wine Enthusiast

Extraordinary? Distinguished? This wine is all that and more!

TODAY! At OVER $150 OFF, a jaw-dropping price for this Library Vintage Napa Cabernet. Eighteen-years in bottle, and this wine is absolutely killing it!

If perfectly aged Napa Cabernet is your thing – the kind that still shows blackberry and dark cherry fruit but with super-complex dried violet, leather, spice box, mature tobacco and tilled loam notes that will have your nose in the glass picking out nuance in a timeless haze, then this wine is for you.

You may remember we offered three library vintages of ‘SOMA’ Cabernet back in late July. If you knabbed some, then you know how well this ages. The Montes family are hidden, humble artisans working behind the scenes in the Napa Valley, enabling the success and stardom of the few and famous.

So, when we asked them if they have anything else we could offer our dear Ops, and they dusted off something EVEN OLDER, DIRECT FROM THEIR CELLAR?!

We nearly lost it. Popping the cork, this is everything you want in a mature Cabernet, and so much more!

To catch you up to speed, today’s wine is the achievement of not one, BUT THREE modest masters. Together they have well over a century of experience. Such expertise and special estate-vineyard fruit you would normally have to pay for over TWO BILLS for! NOT TODAY!

Marita’s Vineyard, for the Montes family it is their dream come true. Their legacy. The result of two brothers toiling over decades. Bulmaro ‘Maro’ Montes and his older brother Manuel moved to the Napa Valley with their father, Manuel Sr., in the late 1960’s to enter the family trade – grape growing.

Maro worked diligently, landing a job at Joseph Phelps, and in 1973 was given charge of their vineyard operations. Under the tutelage of the great Walter Schug, he oversaw the famous Backus Vineyard and was integral in developing their Insignia bottling. For over thirty years he managed their vineyard operations. From Schug and later Craig Williams he soaked up the art of winemaking. But he always wanted his father’s dream, their own property. Decades of hard work and this dream came true in 2001 when he purchased a plot in Coombsville – where he also partnered with Mark Herold on fruit for his famed garagiste project, Merus.

He named it Marita’s Vineyard, after his younger daughter.

His older brother Manuel Montes also had a distinguished career. Originally working side-by-side with the legendary vigneron Elwood Mee (as in, Mee Ln. in Saint Helena). Let’s put it this way… Mee was one of the only people Andy Beckstoffer trusted to buy vines from when replanting Beckstoffer To Kalon and his other sites. Over the years, Manuel picked up Mr. Mee’s unique craft - dowsing. He went on to help countless vineyards in the valley find water for viticulture, including Joseph Phelps, where he helped his brother tend their vines.

To Maro and Manuel, the vineyard is their garden. They dote on every single vine. In 2003 both ‘retired’ to tend Marita’s Vineyard full time. Located about a half mile north of Favia and Faust, this small plot is just over 2.5 acres on a hillside with stoney-gravel soils that yield grapes of excellent concentration. The slightly cooler climate in Coombsville contributes a freshness to the wines, giving them a pristine balance reminiscent to great Bordeaux, but with the unmistakable black-fruit core of great Napa Cabernet.

As if their storied careers are not enough, helping them with the winemaking is Kurk Niznik (Savvy Ops will remember the name from Sylvie Estate we offered). While he’s not a flashy guy, but his resumé is – after working with consultant Philippe Melka at Caldwell Vineyards to produce wine for nineteen clients, he went on to make wine for the Mondavi Family, helping them build Continuum and transition from purchased to estate fruit.

His work with the Montes family has produced this truly stunning bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.

It was a while ago, but despite some tough conditions, 2008 turned out to be a spectacular vintage. Per Vinous in their ten-year retrospective, “When I first tasted these wines alongside the ‘07s, they showed considerable early aromatic appeal… In my extensive tastings of these wines ten years later, in St. Helena in March and at home in New York City in April, the better bottles stood out not only for their concentration but for their harmoniousness—and often for their silky, even chocolatey sweetness, plush middle palates with surprising definition, and smooth, integrated tannins. They are fun to drink today but they have the energy and balance to go on for another decade or more—and possibly much longer than that.”

Eight-years later, and this wine is proof of the vintage’s longevity. Pouring a ruby-garnet, with a bricking rim, the nose explodes with a core of dried and fresh black fruits shrouded in tobacco and old leather like the world’s most inviting smoking lounge. The palate is supple, the wine’s grip still surprising for its age, softening at the edges to a velvety caress. It’s perfectly mature, but with plenty of freshness to continue evolving another three to five years!

Perfectly aged Napa Cabernet, made by true masters of their craft, at THIS PRICE? DIRECT FROM THEIR CELLAR?!

Today Only! Stock up.