2022 ShunYi Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Byron Kosuge built his name on Pinot Noir — decades of it. So when he turns that hand toward Cabernet, you get a Napa red that reaches for perfume and precision instead of brute weight.

That's the idea behind ShunYi Cellars' Pan Deng bottling: 攀登 means "to climb," and the wine is dedicated to the quiet, relentless work that usually goes unseen.

The 2022 is the most complete Pan Deng yet. It pulls mountain structure from Diamond Mountain, high above the valley, then folds in fruit from Meadowbrook — a valley-floor vineyard that once sent grapes to Opus One and Stag's Leap. Mountain spine, valley flesh.

In the glass it's opaque garnet, lifted and precise: blackcurrant, blackberry and cassis, then graphite, cedar, crushed violets and a curl of tobacco leaf that reads almost Bordeaux.

It's full-bodied but never heavy — old-school, in the winemaker's own words, with no cooked fruit and no heavy oak. Sixteen months in French oak, about 40% new, frames it without burying it.

Drink it now with an hour in the decanter, or lay it down. Either way, give it char — ribeye, lamb, short rib, or a wedge of aged cheese.