Frisson Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2022

This is one of our team’s favorite bottles of the past year or two. If opulent, silky, chocolatey, floral Cab speaks to you, and you like high scores and acclaimed winemakers… it should be an easy yes.

The name Frisson means "a sudden strong feeling of excitement," and this 2022 does it. Thick boysenberry puree and baked plums ooze into chocolate lava cake and sultry gardenia. A wash of Gravenstein apple meets a rush of fresh air. Flecks of black pepper and cinnamon evolve into hypnotic frankincense. Decanter awarded 94 points and noted "elongated tannins, creating both density and freshness." This is so smooth for a relatively young bottle – a high-end Cab that’s blessedly ready to drink right now.  

And at this price, you don’t have to hoard it like Kashmiri saffron. We can't name the vineyard because of an NDA, but it's a prestigious site in Napa's Coombsville region – one of the AVA's founding vineyards, an important fruit source for culty producers like Realm and Modus Operandi. The winemaker is Kevin Morrissey, the first-ever American granted a cellar position at the iconic Château Pétrus, and a veteran of some of Napa's best: Ehlers Estate, Stags' Leap, and Étude. Kevin has an artist's touch – he actually went to the NYU film school and worked as a cameraman before pivoting to wine.  

If you've been fuzzy on whether you can and should treat yourself to really great bottles, this should bring the good news into focus.