Today’s WIA goes out to a Wine Spies LEGACY Winery - Random Ridge. No other partner of ours that we can recall has continuously, uninterruptedly since the very beginning in 2007, been there with us, year in, vintage out.

While Sidney Poitier claims that “so much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness” we find nothing random about these extreme-value Veeder Cabs selling out faster than we can type!

Random Ridge is a favorite among all of us, and while a lot has changed up there since 2007, much has also remained the same. A most heartwarming update recently came regarding Zane, Bill and Susan’s son, who recently turned 40. According to Susan, “Zane has spent the first night of his life at Random Ridge, and has lived there since childhood, as has his older brother Emile. After 2017, Zane moved back to the ranch and now lives much of the year in a cabin on the property, involved in every aspect of winegrowing and winemaking. The last two harvests he also worked at our custom-crush partner for us and other small area wineries.”

Which leads us to this very special one. A TRUE RESERVE made only thrice in Random Ridge history to showcase extraordinary vintages and fruit that SCREAMS I’m different!

The “normal” Cab is unmatched in its quality and depth. Unmatched except for the RESERVE that it. This bottling includes only the very best “barrel select” lots from the ‘21 vintage, and it’s a DOOZY. We aren’t sure how Bill and his family do it really. Maybe it’s his carefree, ‘live and let live’ vibe. Posing nude with a surfboard in a snowcapped vineyard at 2,400 feet elevation seems to illustrate that well.

Random Ridge is a true insiders-only, old school winery on the backside of Mount Veeder. It sits with some of the highest elevated vineyards in all of Napa Valley. Bill snagged this beautiful Mayacamas property in 1979 and set to work with a Walden-esque vision. He built a house out of recycled lumber for his family and planted 9.5 acres in the rugged volcanic soil. And has been steadily cranking out killer wines for almost thirty years.

Mind you, this comes from an appellation where $150-500+ has become a normal sight. Consider the likes of Mayacamas, Promontory, or Lokoya. Mount Veeder is home to some of the finest Cab grown anywhere in Napa Valley. This Reserve demands $100 at the winery and isn’t available elsewhere. That already is a great deal but with OVER 65% OFF though, it’s a no-brainer of the highest order.

Bill Hawley describes these beasts as “spicy, extracted and rich wines with alti-dude.” Only a few barrels are made and most of that goes straight to their club members, visitors, restaurants, or small bottle shops. Swelling with a HUGE core of blackberry jam, dark brown sugar, bittersweet chocolate, and violets all wrapped in a robe of toasty oak. It leans into that ultra-rich, “get-barreled”, lavishly ripe, no-holds-barred type of Cabernet.

With so little wine to go around, Bill sees no reason to send samples to the wine press anymore. A past tasting note from Robert Parker raves about “excellent winemaking… copious quantities of sweet, jammy black fruits intermixed with smoke, earth, and spice… a dense, spicy wine with considerable potential, its forward charms are difficult to resist. Drink it over the next decade, but don’t be surprised to see it develop more complexity.” All that is true with this vintage!

Thanks, Bob! And get your cases locked down before it’s gone for good.