Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Textbook's inaugural single-vineyard Cab aged 27 months in (70% new) French oak. Yountville Ranch's well-drained, gravelly loam soils allow the roots to dive deep, as exhibited by the wine's structured tannins. Luscious notes of crushed Morello cherry, red beet, and dark chocolate saturate the palate. The silky, creamy mouthfeel is almost hedonistic, yet it's reined in by a spark of black pepper, anise, and cedar. In terms of aging potential, this wine is destined for greatness.
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James Suckling
Full-bodied and focused with aromas of ripe plums, currants, tobacco leaves and crushed stones. Firm tannins frame the palate, leading to a long, savory finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Textbook's first single-vineyard bottling is the 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Grown Yountville Ranch Vineyard, a pure varietal wine that spent 27 months in 70% new French oak. It's darker in profile and riper than the two other wines reviewed for this report, with cassis, plum and mocha notes, a full-bodied, expansive feel on the palate and a long, supple finish that reveals a touch of alcoholic warmth. Like the other Textbook wines, it should be enjoyed over its first decade.
Textbook was inspired by the Pey Family's travels in France and Italy, where they learned about wine and its place at the table. While abroad, they fell in love with European craftsmanship – wines made with structure, restraint, and revealing a 'sense of place.' For nearly two decades, they've fulfilled that vision – crafting exceptional, while approachable wines that truly represents the best a region has to offer.
Their high-caliber grower and producer partners provide them with superior lots, allowing them to consistently deliver complexity and quality vintage to vintage.
Winemaker Abigail "Abi" Horstman Estrada sources small lots from a range of climates and soils, providing a diverse palette of flavors and aromatics. She honed her winemaking chops in Italy, New Zealand, and Israel and worked for prestige brands like Markham, Domaine Chandon, and Robert Mondavi in Napa Valley. She crafts Textbook wines by keeping the lots separate, tasting them throughout the year, and then integrating the components to create balanced, complex wines that can be enjoyed independently or with various cuisines.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
One of Napa Valley's most historic sub-appellations, Yountville spreads through some of the valley's ideal cooler sites and enjoys success with a handful of different and significant grape varieties.
Syrah competes strongly with Cabernet Sauvignon here for optimal vineyard real estate followed by Pinot noir, Pinot blanc and Sauvignon blanc.
This sub-AVA of Napa Valley is rich in the history that makes Napa Valley what it is today, and not just for red wines. Moët & Chandon entered the California winemaking business via Yountville in 1973 with the establishment Domaine Chandon. Their goal has always been to produce top quality méthode champenoise sparkling wines.
Christian Moueix, originally responsible for managing Chateau Petrus and La Fleur-Petrus in Pomerol, arrived in Yountville in the early 1980s. He formed a partnership with Rohin Lail and Marcia Smith, inheritors of Napanook vineyard from their father John Daniel of Inglenook in Rutherford. In 1995 Moueix became sole owner of Napanook and chose the name Dominus, which today produces some of Napa’s highest scoring, age-worthy Bordeaux Blends.