After The Year Of The Firestorm, 2021 Was A Near Perfect Vintage For West Coast Cabernet Sauvignons: Here Are Some Of The Best

Every vintner in California still has nightmares about 2020, the year when wildfires threatened massive destruction, causing some producers not to release their wines at all. And even when the fire season ended, rain was a rarity.

Yet somehow the gods of wine shone on Napa and Sonoma (as well on Oregon and Washington), bringing the vineyards a warm, early spring with early bud break and flowering, and the grapes began to turn color earlier, too, a process called veraison. Summer was moderate in temperature, and fall floated in gently and cool, with no need for rapid picking of the grapes, which went well into October. The fruit and acids were excellent, enough to allow an early release by some producers of their Cabernets.

Calling it the “vintage of the ages” is hyperbolic, but the wines are certainly among the best of this century. As a result, there are now a good number of excellent 2021 Cabs in the market; here, in various price ranges, are some of the best right now and sure to be better in the years to come.

Oleandri Howell Mountains ($135)
This comes in at a more reasonable, typical 14.5% alcohol as a definitive blend of 94.375% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot, 1% Malbec, .375% Cabernet Franc and .25% Merlot, which sounds like it was made with eyedroppers. The grapes were from the oddly named Game Theory Vineyard, 2,000 feet in altitude on volcanic ash and red clay. The wine spent 22 months in neutral French oak barrels. There is a lot of sweet dark fruit flavors here and an enduring tannin that will only improve the wine if you wait. But even now, with all that fruit, it will go well with autumn game dishes.