Many of the iconic Cabernet Sauvignons dating from the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s were sourced from multiple, exceptional vineyard sites throughout Napa Valley. Brilliant in their youth, the best of these wines are still vibrant and pure fifty and more years later.

Accendo Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon is modeled after this ideal: an uber blend utilizing impeccable fruit from superior vineyard sites, fashioned in a winemaking style that emphasizes elegance, balance, freshness and finesse. Accessible at a young age, yet with the concentration and complexity required for extended cellaring, Accendo Cabernet Sauvignon is a quintessential expression of Napa Valley terroir.

The 2019 growing season began with copious rainfall during the winter months that kept temperatures on the cool side and helped saturate soils, refill reservoirs and recharge groundwater basins. Unusually high amounts of rain in May made plowing tractors into the vineyards a challenge and delayed budbreak for several weeks. Finally, warmer and drier weather arrived in June and as crews opened up the rapidly growing canopies, the young grape clusters revealed themselves to be a good set. Summer remained sunny but mild and vines ripened their crop without environmental stress during the overall cool season; August finally brought much needed heat that continued into September, but cool evenings kept acidities fresh, providing excellent conditions for ripening. Our red grape harvest began on September 23rd with Cabernet Sauvignon and finished on October 25th, also with Cabernet Sauvignon. All the grapes were hand-harvested in the cool pre-dawn hours and were brought to the winery in perfect condition for crush. The wines were fermented in stainless steel tanks and aged sur lie in new and used French oak barrels, then bottled on January 26, 2022.

The dynamic aromas of this wine display gorgeous notes of rose, fennel, tar, graphite, earthy loam, dusty cocoa, and bay laurel; as the wine evolves in the glass, the aromas become even more floral and savory. In the mouth, big, bright flavors of this balanced, multi-layered wine enliven the palate, showing structure, density, freshness and nuanced power, and finishing with long, gravelly tannins.

“This classically built Cabernet is slow to reveal itself, but finally shows its core sweetness wound around a mineral structure enhanced by notes of wild chapparal.” - Nigel Kinsman