NEW Hundred Acre Release: 99-pt. Wraith Cabernet!

WHY BUY:  A matter of hours. That's how long it took for you to snap up every last bottle of our last offer of Hundred Acres, and can we blame you? This fantastic four — including their 99-point Wraith and 99-point Fortunate Son 'Warrior' Cabernets, their 97-point Fortunate Son 'Dreamer' Cabernet, and a 96-point Pinot Noir for just $75 — is sure to disappear just as fast. These are some of the most extraordinary wines being made anywhere in the world today — limited-production musts for any collection — and yet more proof that superstar winemaker Jayson Woodbridge, who has taken home more than 60 perfect, 100-point scores since 2000, is nearly without peer in the business. Woodbridge is both fanatically hands-on and either super-detailed or super-eccentric in his approach, using custom-designed tanks, micro-misters taken straight from Dutch tulip farms, harvest passes so selective that he'll do 5-7 rounds through each vineyard, picking maybe one-tenth of the fruit each time to ensure utter perfection. But you can't argue with his methods ... not when they result in wines that put you into such a deep and sustained state of bliss as these four do.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING:  James Suckling awarded 99-point scores to both the Wraith and Warrior Cabernets, extolling the former for its “iodine and umami character” and saying it contains “essentially the Hundred Acre DNA,” and the latter for its “very fine velvet texture” and “amazing length.” Jeb Dunnuck gave the Dreamer 97 points, calling it a "savory and flavorful” wine with “lovely velvety tannins” and “a long and flavorful finish.” The Stargazing Pinot endeared itself deeply to Decanter; a “remarkably classy” and “super suave” expression, the publication wrote, with “wonderful brown spices and cherry fruit.”

OUR TASTING NOTES:  The Wraith delivers something that’s rare in Napa Cabernet, an umami depth so mouth-filling it feels almost oceanic, with iodine and sage threading through the weave of chocolate and hazelnuts in such a way as to make you question where, exactly, this opulent, meaty, hedonistic wine came from. The Warrior exudes an altogether different energy. This is a wine of deep, concentrated power that builds slowly (Woodbridge never throttles, only seduces), and with fruit so precisely selected you can taste Woodbridge's obsessive harvest passes in every sip. But what’s really impressive is how seamless it all feels, in spite of the intensity and drive; nothing here seems forced or overwrought. The Dreamer surprised me by being immediately rewarding while revealing itself wonderfully over time, as the hours gathered; this is a wine that you’re made to discover, with colorations, gradations, and subtle textures that emerge with the air. As for that Stargazing Pinot for $75, it might just be one of the steals of the decade so far; those brown spices and cherry fruit work together with a sophistication, and a level of control and polish, that puts far more expensive bottles to shame. 

THE STORY:  A brush with mortality changed everything for Jayson Woodbridge. At 18, he overcame a life-threatening illness, and with it, his perspective on the world shifted; from then on (as he has since said) nothing short of excellence would suffice. A former investment banker from Toronto, he became a self-taught winemaker whose perfectionism has become the stuff of oenological legend. This absolute drive for something bigger than ordinary human experience — you can almost taste it in these superlative wines. Woodbridge will walk through vineyards inspecting each cluster individually. He employs irrigation systems that are far from standard in most wineries, having drawn inspiration from Dutch tulip farms. He's even gone to the step of installing NASA-grade air filtration systems in his cellars. Since 2000, his wines have earned 100-point scores an estimated 60 times, nearly half of those from Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate alone, and connoisseurs the world over are sent scrambling for bottles every time a new release is announced.

WHAT TO PAIR THEM WITH:  The Cabernets call for red meat — and the richer, the better: a dry-aged ribeye, a pot of braised short ribs, or a roast duck with huckleberries. The Stargazing Pinot is so fantastic with grilled or cedar-planked salmon, that you’ll be thinking about the next time you can put the two together again.

FUN FACT:  Not many know it, but Woodbridge also makes a dessert-wine Shiraz and a barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc … in Australia's Barossa Valley.