Seamless Cabernet Sauvignon

In Napa Valley there is a rule of thumb that one ton of Cabernet grapes should cost 100 times the price of each bottle of wine produced from that ton. In other words, if the bottle of Cabernet costs you $10, the grapes per ton cost $1,000. And vice versa – a ton of $1,000 grapes should make a $10 bottle of Napa Valley Cabernet.

But when is the last time anyone was able to produce a great $10 Napa Valley Cabernet?

Nowadays Napa Valley is one of the most expensive places to farm grapes – over $30,000 for one ton of the best grapes from the best vineyards. This fruit makes great Cabernet – it’s just that $300 per bottle doesn’t fall into the category of a great Tuesday night Cabernet for most people.

So what is to be done? If you’re a winery intent on making delicious wine, you hire in some help and look farther afield. Seamless, this wine, is a Cabernet from the renowned Clay Shannon. Clay is a contract farmer who since the 1980s was the hired gun behind many Napa Valley wineries' success. They need great fruit, and Clay finds and farms it for them.

The dream of all contract farmers is to someday own their own land. But in Napa, you need a billion dollars just to get started. But if you venture over Napa’s mountain ranges (as Clay did), you get some other prime valleys for making Cabernet. So in addition to farming in Napa, Clay farms all over the North Coast, doing a seamless job blending together Cabernets from different vineyards. And the rest of his best goes into this scrumptious Cabernet.

Seamless opens with aromas of ripe blueberries intermixed with blackberries and crème de cassis. The palate is ripely expressive of Cabernet but not unctuous – it possesses a seamless purity, a lively freshness that makes it perfect for sipping in the late winter/early spring. The finish ends with a smooth note of chocolate and mocha, a perfect vitality that makes drinking it almost too easy.

Luckily, at this price, everyone can afford a luscious North Coast Cabernet. Cheers!