Engel Family Cabernet Sauvignon Rock Mountain Vineyard 2017

Engel Family are long-time Saint Helena stalwarts – tucked up just north of Spring Mountain at the northern edge of town. Their Rock Mountain vineyard is just the sort of soil you want to see for cabernet sauvignon – stressful, quick-draining, rocky, and sparse soils to grow powerful, concentrated cabernet. Legendary winemaker Bob Foley makes the wine –  a few hundred cases yearly of off-the-radar magic! Over 57% off? Let’s go!

This incredible terraced hillside property is sandwiched in between Stony Hill, Turley, El Molino, AXR, and just up the way from the legendary Tychson Hill (Colgin). This is a structured, age-worthy hillside cab that competes with the very best of them...at our price today of ONLY $35.95!! Roughly 85% cabernet sauvignon and 15% merlot – this is powerful, concentrated, and intensely layered with black currant, licorice, mixed berry compote, espresso, clove, and allspice. The 2017 has a cooling elegance despite all this, making the perfect either/or Napa cabernet – 30 minutes in the decanter tonight, or poured two decades from now, you simply can’t miss with this wine!!!

The Engel family never intended to get into wine as a business; their model was always charity-based...Ron Engel moved his family out of San Francisco for a bit of that small-town life and helped to kick-start the Saint Helena High School wrestling program. He dreamed up his own wines as a way to raise money for the program. Bob Foley took them on as a partnership and made their wines at his winery up on Howell Mountain. Now, Ron Engel is retired, we got the call, and we’re THRILLED! They stopped making wines from the vineyard in 2019, but these are truly some of the best under-the-radar Napa cabernets we’ve tasted… for UNDER $40? This is a mind-boggling steal, while we have it, at least!