93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot, 2% Merlot, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Malbec

Food pairings: Grilled steak, roast lamb, braised short ribs, burgers, smoky barbecue and aged hard cheeses.

Winemaking: RouteStock follows a minimal-intervention approach, fermenting with native yeasts and natural malolactic fermentation and without chemical additives, so that each vineyard's character shows through. The 2024 was aged for 17 months, almost entirely in French oak, most of it neutral barrels with a small share of new oak and a touch of American oak. After the cold 2023 season, 2024 brought a normal growing year with ample winter and spring rain, smooth budbreak and bloom, and a warm summer with cool nights; harvest started a few weeks earlier than in 2023 and finished by September 19.

Vineyards and terroir: The fruit comes from long-term grower partners in four corners of the Napa Valley: cool Coombsville, warmer St. Helena, mountainous Mount Veeder and the Rutherford valley floor. Alluvial, volcanic, loam, sandstone and shale soils give a bright, complex blend, finished with small amounts of Petit Verdot, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. The vineyards are sustainably farmed.

Family and history: RouteStock is the California label of Wilson Daniels, the St. Helena fine-wine company founded in 1978 by Jack Daniels and Win Wilson and today owned by the Underwood family. The name evokes both the famous routes that wind between the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma and the rootstock of the vines. Winemaker Vance Rose, a veteran of nearly four decades with winemaking experience in California, France, Spain and Australia, has made RouteStock since 2014 and draws on long-standing Napa Valley connections to source its fruit.

In the pictures: RouteStock winemaker Vance Rose (courtesy of Wilson Daniels / RouteStock).