“The newest celebrity wine actually tastes good.” - San Francisco Chronicle

No, they are not referencing Earl Stevens’ “Cotton Candy Sparkling” or the newest drop from 19 Crimes and Snoop.

Some celebs make a wine just to stroke their ego, but this isn’t one of them. For starters, it’s a 2019 Cab grown on Howell Mountain…

Gaslighter is the result of a collab between The Chicks (once known as The Dixie Chicks) and GunBun, aka Gundlach Bundschu Winery in Sonoma. And while I couldn’t name you a single one of their songs, this Cab will be playing on repeat in my brain. It’s got ALL the makings of a top shelfer from Howell - without the triple digit price.

Wine Spectator explains, “The Chicks have a track record for forging their own path - lead singer Natalie Maines and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer have never shied from speaking their mind. The 13-time Grammy-winning country music stars released an emotional new album in 2020, their first in over a decade, titled Gaslighter. It’s the kind of album that begs to be paired with a glass of wine, so The Chicks obliged, with the help of Sonoma’s Gundlach Bundschu family.”

The winemaker behind this tiny production mountain Cab is Joe Uhr with a decade at GUNBUN (as the vastly popular winery is affectionately nicknamed) with another decade at Duckhorn, Kenwood, and Korbel previously. Some serious experience there, and it shows!

An opulent wine by any measure, despite seven years in the cellar, it still wears deep purple color as well as a dizzying bouquet of blueberries, cassis, truffle, forest floor, and baking spices. A perfectly balanced wine on the palate with a pure, layered, multi-dimensional texture, sweet tannins, and a finish that just won’t quit. Brilliant now, yet it will unquestionably continue to please for another decade.

There’s an NDA on the exact single vineyard this hails from, but there’s a big clue that simply cannot go unnoticed by good spies and Ops. Per the winery, it’s “at the peak of Howell Mountain” which is exactly where Summit Lake, Robert Craig, and Outpost form a triangle. My money is on the latter…

While the world goes gaga over the Gaslighter Rosé (thanks to Taylor Swift posting a photo with it,) this Cab has remained under the radar until we took almost $100 off the price of entry, from $145 all the way down to $50 today which is a rarely seen low for a Cab from high atop Howell Mountain.

No doubt this single (vineyard) is Greatest Hits material – while it lasts to top of our charts today.