Oh no. Take my eyes, not the 2010! Annnd it’s gone! Now onto the 2011.

After the smashing success last month and MANY MANY requests, we went back to the winery and scored some more… plus it’s under $30, all the way from $125 upon release!

An OG, Wine Spies 1.0 winery, Young Ridge returns with a vengeance. We’ve NEVER been able to land one of their mature library releases - until today. These are perfectly cellared at the winery, made by a winemaker with a resume at Robert Mondavi, Beaulieu Vineyard, and Sterling… not just alive, but LIVELY, spritely, full of character. With nearly $100 OFF!!

Young Ridge has been at it since 1995 when founders LeRoy and Patty Young made their first Cabernet. Soon after, they bought a 99-acre parcel in Pope Valley and set to work building a full production facility.

They brought winemaker Julianna Beckmann Gosling on board to make the wines. She started her winemaking career at Robert Mondavi Winery, and after graduating from UC Davis, she honed her art at BV and Sterling. At Young Ridge, Julianna oversaw all aspects of viticulture and winemaking, shepherding the vines from vineyard to bottle.

2011 was one of the coolest Napa vintages on record, thus a bit controversial. Yet Vinous sets the record straight: “As the 2011 Napa Valley Cabernets reached the ten-year mark, revisionist thinking about the wines started to surface. Had the Cabernets of this much-derided vintage turned out better than expected? Absolutely not! The top 2011s were always gorgeous. Today, with the added benefit of bottle age, the best 2011s are showing especially well.”

This may have been deemed an ugly duckling back then, but now in our glasses before us is a gorgeous swan of a Cabernet. In fact, half the room preferred its gentle, delicate, graceful ways to the somewhat still firmer, youthfully tannic 2010. It is a matter of preference, which is a given, yet there’s no denying that we have a sleeper 2011 having bloomed with violets, peppercorns, and red currants, where clove and nutmeg bring the long finish together. A gorgeous sipper on its own, it begs for a charcuterie and aged cheese platter.

Fact: There is no getting enough of this “Bordeaux-lovers’ Napa dreams come through” library Cab. At $29 from the original $125, you need at least a case.

Missed out on this 2011 too? Some of us are slow readers but fret not, the best is yet to come…