Lot Overview
- Region: 100% Oakville estate (base 2022) + 5% 2023 Napa Carneros Merlot + 4% 2024 Coombsville PV + 3% 2024 Yountville Malbec
- Vintage: Non-Vintage (2022 base)
- Varietal: Base: 85% Cab/6% PV/5% CF/4.5% Merlot/.5% Malbec; Final: NV blend
- Oak Aging: ~100% new French oak
- Alcohol: 14.5%
- Cases Available: ~350
- Cam Price: ~$12.50/bottle ($149/case)
- Retail Estimate: $150–400/bottle (Overture to flagship range)
- Claude’s Source Guess: Opus One Winery or Favia Wines — Oakville Estate (two strong candidates)
- Wine Berserkers Guess: Opus One — Overture (NV program)
- Drink Window: 2027–2045 (peak 2030–2040)
Cameron’s Release Notes
The best 2022 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon I’d seen on the bulk market all year — no-expense-spared viticulture, winemaking, 100% new French oak, all the bells and whistles. The acquisition was an exercise in patience: the producer, rightfully very proud but a year late to the market, eventually came down to Earth on price. After poking around, I noticed that the producer had, in the past, bottled and marketed one of their wines as a non-vintage Napa Valley red — which inspired the NV approach here. These folks don’t make a bottle of wine under $200.
To the 2022 Oakville base (85% Cab/6% PV/5% CF/4.5% Merlot/.5% Malbec), we added 5% 2023 Napa Carneros Merlot, 4% 2024 Coombsville Petite Verdot and 3% 2024 Yountville Malbec — all from $150–200+/bottle programs.
Tasting Notes
Opaque verging on inky, this was the darkest 2022 vintage Cabernet I’d seen. On the nose, vibrant aromas of blueberry pie, white flowers and powdery rose petal halo notes of anise and blackberry mixed with milk chocolate and fresh-turned black earth. The bouquet complexes with vervy blackcurrant and racy raspberry with cedar, leather and tobacco from the new oak. Ripe, supple and open knit on entry with a robust structure rich and sumptuous with mixed berry pie, mocha, cocoa powder, cedar and vanilla. Supremely velvety and expansive with long, lingering finish — purity, accessibility and harmony combined with power and precision.
⏳ Bottle Shock Status: Bottling late January/early February. Allow minimum 2 years.
Claude’s Source Guess: Opus One Winery (primary) or Favia Wines (strong alternative) — Oakville Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, 2022 base
Two compelling candidates emerge here, and the community is divided for good reason.
Opus One is the WB favorite and has the strongest claim on the non-vintage angle — their Overture is an explicitly marketed, ongoing non-vintage Napa Valley red, blending multiple vintages of estate Oakville fruit. This is not a historical program Cam had to dig up; it’s something he would have found immediately upon “poking around” the producer’s history. Opus One’s flagship retails at $350–400, their estate is 100% Oakville, the blend composition (multi-variety Bordeaux blend with Cab dominant) matches their known style, and their 100% new French oak program is confirmed across all vintages. They are justifiably one of the proudest brands in California wine, which fits Cam’s “rightfully very proud, year late to market” language perfectly. And critically — if Lot 80 was identified as Opus One (“the third wine they’ve offered me in the past year”), Lot 50 as an earlier Opus One lot makes the cluster internally consistent.
The one tension with Opus One is Cam’s claim that “these folks don’t make a bottle under $200” — Overture retails at ~$150, technically below that threshold. However Cam may have been referring only to their flagship vintage program, or may simply not have been aware of Overture’s retail price when writing the notes.
Favia Wines remains a strong alternative. Andy Erickson and Annie Favia produce 100% Oakville estate Cabernets at $259–275, with no wine in their core lineup under $200. Their blend composition — 85% Cab/6% PV/5% CF/4.5% Merlot/.5% Malbec — matches Cam’s base blend more precisely than Opus One’s typical composition. And Erickson’s reputation (winemaker for Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Dalla Valle, and Ovid) makes “rightfully very proud” entirely apt. The NV precedent for Favia is their pre-2013 “Napa Valley” Cabernet Sauvignon, which blended Oakville and Coombsville sources — a multi-appellation program discontinued when they separated the two AVA designations. Less obvious than Overture, but real.
On balance, WB’s Opus One identification has the cleanest explanation for the NV precedent (Overture is literally an ongoing NV wine), while Claude’s Favia guess has the stronger argument on the “no bottle under $200” language and the blend composition precision. Both deserve serious consideration.
✅ Confidence: Medium-High for Opus One (NV angle decisive, Lot 80 cluster consistent); Medium-High for Favia (blend composition and pricing language more precise). Genuinely unresolved — one of the more interesting debates in the CAM X catalog.
Drink Window
Early: 2027 — 100% new French oak and multi-vintage structure need 2–3 years minimum.
Peak: 2030–2040. Both Opus One and Favia Oakville Cabs consistently peak 8–15 years from the base vintage.
Hold: 2045. The structure and pedigree support two decades regardless of source.
My Call: ⏳ Drink window: 2027–2045 (peak 2030–2040)