KHK Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Napa Valley 2023

What do you get when Napa real estate mogul Jim Keller, the French Laundry’s Thomas Keller (unrelated), the Hall family (of Hall’s Chophouse), plus winemaking marvel Thomas Rivers Brown come together to pen a pristine Napa Cab? Something altogether euphoric, that’s what. Actually, under $100 on 2+ on this tremendous Yountville Cab borders on miraculous, and today it’s all yours! Sometimes it pays to be a Napa insider.

The first vintages of KHK (stands for Keller/Hall/Keller) were strictly allocated to this trio of friends’ fine dining restaurants around the country. But once they first tasted the 2023 vintage, it was apparent that it was time to go public. They call their Cabs “a style that rocks with burgers to bourguignon" – and what a remarkably spot-on description that is! The 2023 Hillside comes from the idyllic Shifflett Ranch vineyard (Jim Keller’s wife Lindsay’s family ranch), positioned between Yountville and Oak Knoll District, and like all their wines, it is purposely designed to be fantastic with food.

This is like the cool, edgy older brother of the winery’s main Napa Valley bottling (which is on the more restrained end of Napa Cabs and goes for $80 at the winery, BTW – not much less than our price of $99.96 on 2+ the rollicking, higher-end, single-vineyard bottling). The grapes were sourced from the most premium western benchland rows at Shifflett and aged in 80% new French oak (from all-star coopers Sylvain, Remond, and Darnajou), with only 300 total cases made. Add in the tremendous, cool, even 2023 growing season, and you’re pretty much verging on perfection.

What you get in the glass is as inky, opaque, and concentrated as a starless night sky, lifting up heart-throbbing notes of blackberry compote, rose petals, toasted peppercorns, and warm, crushed clove into the air. The flavors layer in even more elements of seduction – macerated blue and black fruits, soft saddle leather, punctuations of dark chocolate, sultry pipe tobacco, and dry-aged beef – while a steady acidity gives it this succulent energy, and the tannins are as smooth as a silk Hermes scarf. Nowhere will you get access to a single-vineyard Napa Cab with this much pedigree woven into its very soul for UNDER $100 on 2+ – so make sure you get your hands on this while we’re still lucky enough to have some!

FOOD PAIRINGS: Per the KHK team’s rec, I like the idea of burgers OR bourguignon with this – choose your fighter!