Collection: Napa Valley

Napa Valley is thirty miles long and produces well under 1% of the world's wine — yet it sets the price for New World Cabernet.

What to expect. Napa Cabernet is riper and rounder than Bordeaux made from the same grape. The fruit is more forward, the tannins softer when young, and the alcohol higher. If you have found young Bordeaux austere and drying, start here instead.

The trade-off. That immediate appeal comes at the cost of the savoury, earthy complexity that Bordeaux develops with age. Neither approach is wrong; they are different arguments about what wine is for.

On the list. Joseph Phelps, Cakebread Cellars, Duckhorn, Black Stallion, Hill Family Estate.

Decant an hour. Serve 16–18°C — not Hong Kong room temperature, which is 26°C and will make any Napa Cabernet taste of alcohol.

All American wine · Compare with Bordeaux