2018 Stonestreet Estate Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Bear Point Vineyard Alexander Valley 750 ml

Mountain-grown Cabernets are some of the most sought after in Napa Valley. But the more you learn about what makes mountain Cabs so prized—and the more you taste great ones—the more you realize that some of the most stunning and authentic expressions come from the Sonoma side of the Mayacamas.

The 2018 Stonestreet Cabernet Sauvignon Bear Point Vineyard Alexander Valley—grown at 1,000 feet of elevation in the Mayacamas—is a phenomenal mountain Cab that rivals Napa’s very best, and there is NOTHING shy about it. Hailing from the all-time-great 2018 vintage, showing massive nose of blackberry, dried plum, and cassis, plus a ripe palate carried on fine-grained tannins, it earned 95 points from Vinous’s tough-grading Antonio Galloni. 

In that review, Galloni kept returning to this Cabernet’s power: He called it “brooding” and “potent,” praising its “power, tension and energy.” “There's a lot of wine here,” he concluded.

The Stonestreet estate, purchased in 1995, was extremely important to the late Jess Stonestreet Jackson, whose middle name came from that of a doctor named Stonestreet, who saved his life as a baby. When the time came to name his most beloved property—in the end, the place he would be buried—the choice was already made.

Stonestreet’s 5,300-acre estate in the Mayacamas Range is so vast, it could be its own AVA. This bottling comes from blocks of the Bear Point Vineyard, which are planted at 1,000 feet of elevation. Although the property is sprawling, this bottling is tiny, just about 500 cases.

In the 2018 vintage, which will go down in history as one of the North Coast’s best this century, this wine was hand-picked before fermentation in stainless steel tank and malolactic fermentation in barrel. It spent 20 months in French oak (35% of it new), before being bottled in the summer of 2020. 

Now, this wine, which is nearly impossible to find outside of the winery, is drinking beautifully. We are thrilled to share it with you, straight from the Stonestreet cellars, where it has been resting since release. It’s such a treat.