“‘Stone the Crows’ Three Twins Vineyard Cabernet is one of the most distinctive wines in Napa Valley.” - Vinous

Do future-you a favor and get an extra case or two if you can swing it. When 2036 rolls around, you’ll be happy about that big brain move.

If the huge score, top tier winemaker and pedigreed hillside vineyard at 50% OFF hasn’t stirred your Cabernet-loving soul, maybe some encouragement from fellow Ops will.

This wine is starting to collect the glowing praise in the group: “one of my favorite and most memorable wines I’ve had this year!” says Andrew Y. and another Op backed him in the comments, saying “With Bill Harlan backing the planting of this vineyard in 2005 and Thomas Rivers Brown making the wine…In the same neighborhood as Bond Melbury…I know all wine is subjective, I feel like this is a blow your rest of year wine budget offering.”

No doubt we will see a steady stream of “wish I bought more” comments in coming months as people open this. Heed those wise words!

Stone the Crows burst onto the scene a few years ago to HUGE acclaim. If you were lucky, you scored some of the few bottles we landed a year ago during a Cellar Stocker. Today we’re back with more than a few bottles, but not nearly enough cases of this award-winning blockbuster 98 POINT Cab.

Vinous elaborates, “This small hillside site in Conn Valley was originally developed by the Harlan team and remains meticulously farmed today. Thomas Rivers Brown makes the wines for proprietor Rick Talmadge.”

The vineyard is just up the road from Bond Melbury ($850+ per bottle!), originally planted by the same team. AND you read that name right – TRB, father to more 100 Point wines than one could count. It usually it runs you $150, a comparative bargain. This near-perfect Cab serves up “a commanding yet refined mountain Cabernet with the structure to age beautifully.”

The name “Stone the Crows” comes from British slang for surprise or disbelief. Our price of $79 surely fits the expression.

This stuff is all but impossible to find outside the mailing list, and NEVER seen at this price. We managed to secure a couple dozen more cases, but that’s all there is. Once it’s gone it’s not coming back.

With TRB at the helm, there’s no doubt this is the real deal. It sits alongside a group of coveted projects in his portfolio, including Outpost, Maybach, Schrader and his own Rivers-Marie.

Brown has been hailed as, “the most successful winemaker in California” and has the “Midas touch” according to the pros. He only works with the best vineyards, case in point - Three Twins Vineyard which was planted by Mary Hall for Harlan’s The Napa Valley Reserve.

That land is key to this wine’s immense profile. Crows owner Rick Talmadge bought the 4.5-acre vineyard, and now he’s doing it justice. He recruited Jason Ray as the vineyard manager. Ray oversees some of the most important acres for labels including a few other TRB-made ones like The Grade and Strala.

This has the hallmarks of an upper deck Napa Cab. Toasty richness, dense fruit, layers of complexity and a sturdy backbone. Explosive layers of pomegranate molasses, blackberry jam and toasty sugared walnuts kick things off. Mexican chocolate? Cedar? Cardamom? All in there. Wrap it up with velvety soft tannins from that expensive French Darnajou oak, and you’ve got the trappings of a ‘cult’ Cab.

Only today, at a bargain price!

98 points - Decanter “From the Three Twins Vineyard, a fantastic hillside site about a mile uphill from the BOND Melbury property. Full-bodied, supple, and decadent with an almost Right Bank-like burst of red and black cherries complemented by sagebrush and ironstone minerals. The wine has impressive depth and richness, showing blackberry liqueur-like flavours nuanced by expressive cedarwood. Super-refined tannins usher the wine to a long and graceful finish. Founding winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown fermented grapes in stainless tanks and left them 14-16 days on the skins, with a few days of cold soaking and pump-overs twice daily. Aged 20 months in 80% new Darnajou, Remond, and La Grange barrels and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Drink 2024-2040.”