2021 CourAvant Proprietary Red St. Helena Napa Valley

Two acres of vines in St. Helena. A winemaker with two 100-point scores. A price that makes no sense until you hear the story.

Gary and Sharon Lessing started making wine in 2006 from the vines in front of their St. Helena house. Two barrels a year.

They called it Front Yard. In 2020 they bought the old Jaffe Estate south of town: four acres, two planted. It sits at the foot of the Mayacamas where St. Helena meets the Rutherford Bench. The neighbors are Cathiard, Dana Estate, and Flora Springs. The vines went in during the early 1990s. There is an observatory on the property, which is a story for another day.

The winemaker is Sally Johnson Blum. She spent 15 years at Pride Mountain, where Robert Parker gave her 2012 and 2013 Reserve Cabernets 100 points each. Then she ran winemaking at Robert Mondavi. Now she consults for a handful of small estates. This is one of them.

The 2021 is a 50/50 split of estate Merlot and estate Cabernet, a shift from the usual two-thirds Cab. The Lessings did it on purpose. The Merlot on this site is the structured one, and 2021 gave them fruit worth showing off. What you get is a Left Bank-style Napa red with real grip.

Blackberry and black cherry, pomegranate and cranberry for lift, a little sweet oak, and tannins that coat rather than bite. It drinks now and will go a decade without effort.