Foley ‘The Butcher’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

Bob Foley is a winemaker who has always had a plan going way back to 1977 when he first started making wines at Pride Mountain. From Pride, he went on to build Parker darlings like Switchback Ridge, Hourglass and Paloma. Not possible without the best of plans. So, with that kind of resume, doors open pretty easily when it comes to finding some of the best Cabernet grapes possible in the Napa Valley.

If you know Bob, he’s a character. There’s virtually no one in all of Napa that is willing to sit on wine for years, only to release it when the master deems it ready. It makes no sense. You have to pay the vineyard crew by the week. Barrels – paid for upon delivery. You get to wait a little bit before you buy the glass. But Bob will wait several years before finally releasing the wine and getting back any return on investment.

So the waiting game got the best of us last year and Bob never released the ‘Butcher’. In the two vintages we’ve had so far, the Butcher has been the highest rated and most ordered by far. But as we got our last shot at the 2013 bottling at the end of 2018, we had to wait more than a full calendar year before getting another shot at the “butcher’s cut”. After tasting the 2014 Foley ‘The Butcher’ Cabernet last week, I can gladly report, it’s well worth the wait.

After a near perfect 2013 vintage in Napa, winemakers were treated to what many say was an even better 2014. Wine Spectator called it “A Dream Vintage”. James Suckling called it, “one of the best vintages of the past two decades!” For Robert Foley, nature provided more than enough to make this vintage the meatiest ‘Butcher’ Cabernet ever. With gorgeous dark, ripe and concentrated fruit with intense aromatics and a ton of depth, the 2014 Butcher Cabernet is the culmination of sheer power with silky finesse.