Loren Crossing Napa Valley Cabernet

Every so often, a new winery comes along that feels less like an arrival and more like a continuation — another pair of hands stepping into the long American tradition of coaxing meaning from land. Loren Crossing is one of those places. Their 2023 Cabernet doesn’t trumpet novelty; it reads more like the first careful wheel of a cheesemaker discovering the rhythm of a new dairy — patient, attentive, willing to let the raw material speak before shaping it into form.

2023 was a generous year in Napa, long and even, the kind of season that allows growers to make decisions with the same deliberateness as an affineur turning wheels in a quiet cellar. The wine reflects that steadiness. It opens with the clean, dark edges of blackcurrant and graphite — the raw ingredients — then folds into notes of blackberry skin, roasted plum, and a cedar tone that feels hand-planed rather than lacquered. There’s a youthful firmness to the tannins, not unlike the springy resistance of a cheese still early in its aging life: not yet softened, but already hinting at the depth time will reveal.

What’s most striking is the sense of place emerging through restraint. Loren Crossing resists the modern impulse to inflate; instead, they build flavor the way great cheesemakers build complexity — through balance, precision, and trust in the inherent character of the region. You taste Napa not as spectacle but as structure: warm days, cool nights, volcanic soils under tension with riverbed gravel. The wine carries that history the way a bandaged cheddar carries the imprint of its cloth.

Drink it now for its clarity and youthful edge, or let it rest five to eight years, allowing those tannins to loosen and the fruit to settle into a darker, more resonant register. Pair it with foods that echo its grounded confidence: dry-aged ribeye, braised lamb shank, or, fittingly, a piece of well-aged Alpine-style cheese — something with caramelized onion warmth and enough backbone to stand beside a Cabernet that’s finding its voice with admirable honesty.