Well, that’s it, we probably won’t top this. Time to pack it up and move into the daily yarn business - Mongolian Yaks and Alpaca fur coming soon.

I mean… single vineyard, OAKVILLE Cabernet. With a heart-thumping 96 points. From the splendid 2021 vintage with “tremendous energy and finesse” per Vinous.

Comparable single vineyard Oakville Cabs go for what? $100, $200, $300, or more these days? Turnbull at $110. Sojourn at $195. Patria $130. Tor at $110. Just to name a few. All excellent wines, and even on the cheap end you can find good to great values.

But we’re about to move the goalposts WAY closer and scramble your entire perspective. A 96-point Oakville Cab in the $50s seems more fiction than fact, yet here we are.

One thing - move like the wind because there’s truly not much of this one to go around…

The Stringer family comes from a manufacturing background in metalworking - stamps, machinery, and metal fabrication. Casey Stringer caught the wine bug on a chance visit to Napa Valley. He needed to scratch that itch and left Wisconsin to go to college in Santa Barbara. From there he worked at a range of great wineries - Robert Sinskey in Napa, Archery Summit in Oregon, numerous New Zealand wineries too, where he took up a formal winemaking education, and finally at cult winery Jonata with shared ownership with Screaming Eagle! Today he and his wife, along with their two boys make small batches.

Purply-black goodness!! So seductive! So sultry and packing all the silky creme de cassis and red currant you can handle. A deep well of black raspberry and dreamy morello cherries on top of some molten lava cake and toasty vanilla cream. Velvety texture, ample concentration, and ‘bags of energy’ on the finish (as noted by LPB below of TWI) keep it flowing. Not heavy, thick, or syrupy but hugely concentrated and sure to please the most discerning collectors out there.

Again, not much of this one. If it’s up for grabs while you’re reading this, lock it down!

96 Points – The Wine Independent

“Deep garnet-purple in color, it tumbles out with compelling notes of black and red currant jelly, wild blueberries, and black raspberries, plus suggestions of rose oil and cedar chest. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is packed with crunchy black and red berry layers, framed by ripe, finely-grained tannins and lovely tension, finishing with bags of energy. Drink 2024-2042.”