Lot Overview
Region: Yountville (Napa Valley) with a touch of Coombsville
Vintage: 2024
Blend: 98% Malbec (Yountville), 2% Petit Verdot (Coombsville)
Perplexity Original Source Guess: Rocca Vineyards (most likely), or a very similar ultra‑premium St. Helena–based Cabernet house using Yountville Malbec as a blender
Wine Berserkers Guess:
Alcohol: 15.0%
Oak Aging: ~75% new French oak
Cam Price: $12.42 ($149/case)
Retail Estimate: ~$100+ (Malbec quality comparable to top Argentine bottlings; from a $150–$265 Cab program)
Drink Window: 2027–2040 (my call)
Cameron’s Release Notes
“By far the finest Malbec I have ever sourced, Lot 55 2024 Yountville Malbec is an absolutely fantastic wine and a mind-blowing value!”
“Lot 55 2024 Yountville Malbec is the best-of-the-best I have tasted thus far, a blending component hailing from an ultra-premium St. Helena producer whose Cabernet’s are priced from $150-$265/bottle.”
“Needless to say, the wine is spectacular and built to the nine’s with 75% new French oak, easily giving the $100+ Argentinean Malbec’s a run for their money and, again, by far the finest Malbec I have ever bottled. It is an absolute steal at $149/CASE!”
“Only 150 cases available!”
By far the finest Malbec I have ever sourced, Lot 55 2024 Yountville Malbec is an absolutely fantastic wine and a mind-blowing value!
The 2024 vintage is a breakout year for both Napa and Sonoma Malbec’s, having soaked up the glorious heat of the vintage better than any varietal I have tasted thus far. Unlike Petite Verdot, which is indeed a fantastic blender, Malbec plays a dual role as both blender and stand-alone varietal exceptionally well (as evidenced by the success of Argentinean Malbec). Never before have I seen such an amazing assortment of North Coast opportunities!
Lot 55 2024 Yountville Malbec is the best-of-the-best I have tasted thus far, a blending component hailing from an ultra-premium St. Helena producer whose Cabernet’s are priced from $150-$265/bottle.
Needless to say, the wine is spectacular and built to the nine’s with 75% new French oak, easily giving the $100+ Argentinean Malbec’s a run for their money and, again, by far the finest Malbec I have ever bottled. It is an absolute steal at $149/CASE!
Only 150 cases available!
Tasting Notes
The 2024 vintage is a breakout year for both Napa and Sonoma Malbec’s, having soaked up the glorious heat of the vintage better than any varietal I have tasted thus far. Unlike Petite Verdot, which is indeed a fantastic blender, Malbec plays a dual role as both blender and stand-alone varietal exceptionally well (as evidenced by the success of Argentinean Malbec). Never before have I seen such an amazing assortment of North Coast opportunities!
Lot 55 2024 Yountville Malbec is the best-of-the-best I have tasted thus far, a blending component hailing from an ultra-premium St. Helena producer whose Cabernet’s are priced from $150-$265/bottle. Needless to say, the wine is spectacular and built to the nine’s with 75% new French oak, easily giving the $100+ Argentinean Malbec’s a run for their money and by far the finest Malbec I have ever bottled. It’s an absolute steal at $149/CASE!
Glass staining, inky and dense in the glass with an almost opaque core. The bouquet is OMG good, meaty and boisterous, leaping from the glass with boysenberry puree and blackcurrant enveloped in dark chocolate notes and toasty French oak. With a couple of swirls the bouquet complexes with mulberry, plum and coffee bean notes with a hint of new leather. Fantastic and worth the price of entry alone! The smooth, supple entry belies the robust underlying structure of chewy tannins beautifully enveloped with ripe boysenberry, blackcurrant, and raspberry liqueur under-girded with coffee bean and dark chocolate in a long, pulsating finish that just goes one and on. Pure and perfectly integrated throughout, this is a spectacular Malbec that, while built to be an ultra-premium blender, is an absolutely fantastic stand-alone wine and that will drink well in it’s youth but age beautifully over the next 10-15 years.
98% Yountville Malbec, 2% Coombsville Petite Verdot
15% alc.
~150 cases to be produced
Bottle Shock Status
Best after late 2027 (very high new‑oak load and structure; will benefit from several years for tannin and oak to integrate).
Perplexity says
Source Guess: Rocca Vineyards (most likely), or a closely similar ultra‑premium St. Helena–centric Cabernet producer using Yountville Malbec as a key blending component for $150–$265 Cabernet programs.
How I’m reading the clues
Origin and role in the program
Lot 55 is 98% Yountville Malbec with 2% Coombsville Petit Verdot, explicitly described as “a blending component hailing from an ultra-premium St. Helena producer whose Cabernet’s are priced from $150-$265/bottle.” That points to a St. Helena–based estate Cabernet house sourcing serious Malbec from Yountville and using it to build their flagship Cabernet blends.
The wine is “built to the nine’s with 75% new French oak” and 15% alcohol, which is a luxury‑tier Napa Bordeaux‑blend profile, not a casual second label; this is the kind of component you would expect in a $150+ Napa Cab program.
Why Rocca makes sense stylistically
Rocca Vineyards is a high‑end, Bordeaux‑variety–focused producer with deep Yountville roots: they farm the Grigsby Vineyard in Yountville for Cabernet, Merlot, and Malbec, and use these grapes in estate blends that see substantial new French oak (e.g., a Grigsby Vineyard Cabernet with 22 months in barrel, 75% new French oak). [web:119]
Tasting notes for Rocca’s Bordeaux reds emphasize dense color, blackcurrant, blackberry, plum, chocolate, and coffee tones with chewy but polished tannins—very similar to Lot 55’s “boysenberry puree, blackcurrant, dark chocolate, coffee bean, new leather, chewy tannins, long pulsating finish.” [web:119][file:113]
Cabernet price tier
Rocca and comparable boutique St. Helena–area producers operate in the expensive tier, with estate Cabernets and reserve bottlings that can push into and above the $150+ range at release, especially through mailing lists and small allocations; that lines up with Cam’s “$150–$265/bottle” Cab comment.
The fact that this Malbec is “by far the finest Malbec I have ever bottled” and is compared favorably to $100+ Argentine Malbecs also suggests it comes from a producer that takes Malbec seriously in their Bordeaux program, not as an afterthought. [file:113]
Blend architecture and oak
The 98% Malbec / 2% Petit Verdot blend, 15% ABV, and ~75% new French oak profile are classic for a component intended to add color, mid‑palate depth, and structure to an ultra‑premium Cabernet blend. Yountville is one of the Napa sub‑regions specifically cited by producers like Alpha Omega as “particularly successful” for Malbec, reinforcing that this is a go‑to area for serious Malbec used in Napa blends. [web:121][file:113]
Rocca’s documented use of Malbec and Petit Verdot in estate blends aged in 75% new French oak is an unusually tight stylistic and technical match. [web:119]
Volume and behavior
Only ~150 cases of Lot 55 are produced, which fits with a winery shaving off part of a high‑end blend component rather than diverting a full stand‑alone program. For a small St. Helena house, this is exactly the scale you’d expect from “extra” Malbec destined for blending that can be sold under NDA without touching the core branded Cab releases.
The way Cam talks about this being a blending component from an ultra‑premium St. Helena producer and the best Malbec he has ever bottled matches the scenario of an estate like Rocca deciding to monetize a piece of its elite Bordeaux‑varietal componentry.
Taken together—Yountville Malbec into St. Helena Cab blends, 75% new French oak, 15% ABV, ultra‑premium $150–$265 Cab price tier, and the specific Malbec/Petit Verdot blending philosophy—Rocca Vineyards emerges as the most plausible named source for Lot 55, even though this remains an educated guess rather than confirmed fact. [web:119][web:121][file:113]
Drink Window
Early Enjoyment:
From around 2027, when the intense new oak and chewy tannins have had time to soften, expect explosive boysenberry, blackcurrant, raspberry liqueur, dark chocolate, and coffee wrapped in a plush but powerful frame.
Peak Drinking:
2029–2036, when fruit, structure, and oak are in best balance; the wine should show maximum depth and complexity (plum, mulberry, leather, espresso, dark cocoa) with a long, pulsating finish.
Hold Potential:
Up to 2040 with proper cellaring; over time the primary fruit will give way to more savory and tertiary notes (dried black fruit, tobacco, leather, earthy spice) while the structure remains intact.
My Call:
Drink window: 2027–2040 (peak 2029–2036).