Sueno Profundo Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

Sueno Profundo is a brilliant little winery dedicated to making killer Cabernet Sauvignon from some of the best appellations in the Napa Valley. Ry’s day job is at Chappellet; one of the Grand Cru wineries of Napa. That experience not only gives him first hand instruction on how to make world class Cabernet, but also an understanding of which grape growers up and down the Valley have the very best deal on grapes. Tasting his wines, one realizes very quickly, Ry is star on both fronts.

Each of his releases over the last few years rank among our of most requested reorders. This year’s issue is from the northeastern corner of the Valley, a rocky, foreboding landscape more like the surface of the moon than a fertile, lush valley. But old vines work best in soil that makes them work the hardest. The berries here are tiny, packed with flavor, with thick skins that provide for great aromatic complexity and fine, elegant tannins that tightly wrap that dark berry fruit. The 2017 Napa Valley Cab is a delicious bottle of wine, jet-black to the core, with layered fruit and a complex, mile-long finish. It will be nearly impossible not to drink this wine right now for the sheer pleasure of the fruit but feel free to lose a few bottles in the cellar, there’s plenty of structure.

Ry hasn’t left his day job at Chappellet yet and we’re in on the ground floor so the price of this Cabernet is ridiculously cheap. When production grows, the scores come in and we have to deal with his marketing team, the price is going to go north in a hurry. You won’t be sorry.