Shannon Family of Wines OVIS Cabernet Sauvignon High Valley 2017

This one’s for our Napa cab aficionados who don’t exactly love paying the price of Napa cabs ad nauseam. Enter: Ovis Cabernet Sauvignon 2017, from the trailblazing Shannon family, who have become known as pioneers of California’s most up-and-coming AVA: the rugged, mountainous landscape of Lake County’s High Valley, way up on the northern border of the Mayacamas Mountains. This cab? Consider it their very best: estate-grown, deeply rich, impeccably structured, 92 points, and now, 57% OFF. Yes, really.

A Cali cab that competes with those big, inky beauties from Howell Mountain, Diamond Mountain, Stagecoach, and really any of Napa’s famous peaks – but for the silly price of $25.95? Where’s Ashton Kutcher? Are we being Punk’d? No, in fact, the truth is – the wilds of Lake County aren’t all that dissimilar to the high-elevation, rocky, volcanic mountains within Napa, and happen to produce a very similar product – powerful, ageable, downright delectable wines – on much more inexpensive land. Clay Shannon spent years in Sonoma running an empire of vineyards before he made his way north to expand his kingdom to the new and surprisingly impressive territory. 

And, boy, is this cabernet sauvignon ever impressive. It’s loaded with deep, inky darkness and robustly structured, bringing in an ebony tidal wave of black cherries, black plums, black currants, blackberries, and even black olives. Did someone say dark and inky? Oh, yes – and it’s carefully balanced with the warming, spiced notes of Saigon cinnamon, black pepper, and clove to round out all those big, bodacious fruits. A nice, 30-month rest on oak gives this fruity, spicy heavy-hitter a perfect opportunity to smooth out and come together, culminating as a no-nonsense, layered, and velvety cab that, we swear, in a blind-tasting, we’d call a Napa big gun. But for under $26? Let’s just call it your new daily-drinker cab! As ever, free shipping for 6 bottles – you know you wanna!