2023 Silverado Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Silverado Vineyards was founded in 1981 by Lillian Disney — Walt Disney's widow — together with her daughter, Diane Disney Miller, and son-in-law, Ron Miller, the longtime president and CEO of Walt Disney Productions.

The family had purchased land in the Stags Leap District in the 1970s (from the See family of See's Candies) and spent years selling their fruit to some of Napa's most acclaimed wineries before deciding to make wine under their own name.

They built the mission-style winery on a knoll overlooking the Silverado Vineyard, which takes its name from the abandoned mining town at the top of the valley where Robert Louis Stevenson once stayed and likened winegrowing to prospecting for precious metal.

Over four decades the estate grew to more than 300 acres across some of Napa Valley's most celebrated appellations, including the Stags Leap District, Oakville, and volcanic Coombsville. The original Silverado Vineyard is among the first Cabernet plantings in the Stags Leap District, and in 1999 UC Davis granted its Cabernet "Heritage" status (FPS #30) — one of only three Cabernets in California to earn the distinction, and the only one from Stags Leap.

Foley Family Wines acquired the winery in 2022, carrying forward its tradition of estate-grown, estate-bottled Napa Valley wine.

Winemaker Alison Rodriguez blends the two across all five classic Bordeaux varieties : 81% Cabernet Sauvignon rounded out with all four of the other Bordeaux red varieties. It draws structural precision from the Stags Leap District estate and dark-fruited concentration from Coombsville's volcanic soils, layered into a polished, full-bodied wine made to drink now or hold.

Pour it alongside a ribeye tonight or set it aside for five or more years in a cool, dark place. This is an estate-grown Napa Cabernet with the pedigree to reward both decisions equally well.