Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (2022)

About this wine

This 2022 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon shows concentrated black and blue fruit, with aromas of blackberry, plum and a lift of minty spice. The palate is plush and full bodied, offering layers of cassis, baked cherry and cocoa alongside notes of vanilla and roasted espresso from oak aging. The wine is blended with Merlot and Petit Verdot and the fruit comes from multiple estate sites across Napa including Stags Leap District, Oakville and Rutherford. Winemaking included careful sorting, a cold soak and maturation in a mix of new and neutral French and American oak for about 18 months, which contributes to the round texture and soft tannin frame. The 2022 vintage was warm and concentrated in Napa producing a generous mid palate and good aging potential, with an alcohol level in the mid to high 14 percent range.

About the grape

Cabernet Sauvignon is the backbone of this Napa bottling, a variety long planted across the valley for its thick skins and structure, and Pine Ridge sources it from estate blocks in Stags Leap District, Oakville, Rutherford, Howell Mountain and Carneros which are farmed with Napa Green practices to manage soils and yields. Merlot appears in small amounts to soften and add mid palate roundness, it is typically planted and trained in similar trellis systems in cooler blocks or benchlands so it ripens a little earlier than Cabernet and integrates with the blend. Petit Verdot is used in tiny percentages to boost color and firm up tannic structure, it is a late ripening, small berry variety that producers like Pine Ridge place on warm sites or use from purchased lots to ensure full phenolic maturity and concentrated extraction during vinification.

Quick facts

• 🌲 Pine Ridge gets its name from a terraced hillside dotted with pine trees that inspired the original 1978 Stags Leap plantings
• 🧩 The 2022 Napa blend includes a pinch of Petit Verdot and Merlot to add spice and plushness, a little secret most drinkers do not notice at first
• 🌙 Grapes for this bottle are harvested at night to lock in cool freshness, a practice that helps preserve bright fruit and acidity
• 🗺️ Pine Ridge farms across five different Napa AVAs to create this single Napa Valley bottling, so one bottle is a passport through the valley
• 🪺 The winery is Napa Green certified, and they use owl boxes and cover crops to encourage biodiversity in the vineyards that feed this wine

Palate profile

Producer

Founded in 1978 by Gary Andrus, Pine Ridge Vineyards is situated in Napa Valley's Stags Leap District, renowned for its exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon. Andrus, inspired by Bordeaux wines, planted the original vineyard on a steep hillside flanked by pine trees, leading to the winery's name. Over the years, Pine Ridge expanded its estate to 160 acres across five prestigious Napa Valley appellations: Stags Leap District, Howell Mountain, Oakville, Rutherford, and Carneros. Committed to sustainability, the winery holds Napa Green certifications for both its vineyards and winery operations.