94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc

Food pairings: A balanced, food-flexible Cabernet: grilled steak, roast turkey and the Thanksgiving table, and roasted or braised meats.

Winemaking: Early lots from the Chavez-Leeds and Williams-Rossi ranches fermented with native yeast, while later lots were inoculated to ensure balance. All lots received three daily pumpovers at first, with extraction limited to gentle sprinkling and blow-overs later in fermentation, for a balanced, drinkable welterweight style rather than a big bruiser. The 2022 aged 20 months in French oak barrels, about 26% new, with three rackings. A third straight drought year and a historic September heat wave shaped the vintage: frost-control systems were repurposed to protect the fruit at the westside ranches, while heat-affected late blocks at the Red Barn ranch, about a quarter of the Cabernet harvest, were declassified and sold off in bulk.

Vineyards and terroir: The wine is sourced exclusively from Frog's Leap's own vineyards on the Rutherford Bench, the western side of Rutherford renowned since the days of Inglenook and Beaulieu for world-class Cabernet: in 2022 mostly Chavez-Leeds and Williams-Rossi, with a little from Red Barn. The gravelly benchland soils give deep rooting, good drainage and the earthy, cocoa-powder "Rutherford Dust" character, and all the vineyards are certified organic and dry farmed, without irrigation, encouraging deep roots and flavorful grapes at lower sugars.

Family and history: Frog's Leap began with John Williams, who arrived in Napa Valley in 1975, worked at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and has been crafting Napa Cabernet ever since; the winery pressed its first harvest in 1981. In 1989 Frog's Leap became the first Napa Valley winery to have its vineyards certified organic, and in 1994 it found its permanent home around the old Red Barn in Rutherford. For decades the goal was an estate-grown Rutherford Cabernet inspired by the early Cabernets of Inglenook and BV. Today John works alongside his son, winemaker Rory Williams, production winemaker Pablo Polanco and vineyardist Frank Leeds.

In the pictures: Founder John Williams at the winery (photo courtesy of Frog's Leap); a winter cover crop between the dormant vines of a Frog's Leap vineyard, with one of the farm dogs (photo courtesy of Frog's Leap); and the gardens and buildings at the winery in Rutherford (photo: Clay Gilliland, 2006, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons).