Chad Napa Valley Cabernet Blend 2016

By now, when it comes to finding home-run deals in Cabernet, we all should have a load of faith in my friend, Chad. His “Chad Plan” calls for wineries to bottle their new wines in “shiners”. Wine bottled without label or branded cork. For many wineries with bloated inventories, this gives them an out when current markets aren’t providing one. Chad offers a price on the entire lot that is substantially higher than the depressed bulk market but still dramatically less the intended retail. Chad bottles these “shiners” under his own label, talks about vineyard sources and how the wine is made but doesn’t mention the winery’s name.

The Chad label is all about opportunity; the opportunity for wineries to get out of stuck product without cheapening their brand and the opportunity of a lifetime for consumers to buy fantastic American wine at everyday prices.

His latest release is the 2016 Napa Valley Proprietary Red Wine. This Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend, a rich, teeth-staining wine, which delivers way more power, fruit and finish than any other sub-$25 Cabernet that I have tasted. This is juicy, powerful Cabernet, displaying the concentration and length generally found in bottles twice its price (that’s because what’s in the bottle IS twice the price!).