Day 1, Part 4. After visiting Mike Smith of  Myriad and Quivet, we headed to Lewelling Vineyards, where we met with longtime winemaker Dave Wight. (In case you’re wondering, the whole “Dave White meets Dave Wight” provided several seconds of entertainment.)

Lewelling can trace its roots to 1864, when winegrower and horticulturist John Lewelling purchased the property. In 1950, his great-granddaughter Janice Lewelling Wight built a home on the property with her husband Russ, and turned it into an operational vineyard. Today, it’s one of the oldest continuously-owned family vineyards in Napa Valley. The estate is run by Russ’s three sons — Alan, Doug, and Dave — and since 1992, they’ve been making their own vineyard-designated wine. (Haley Wight — Dave’s niece — is the assistant winemaker, and makes her own wine under the Hayfork label.)

When we arrived at the property (after getting lost… twice), Dave took us on a brief tour of the vineyard, telling us his family’s story while giving us a brief viticultural lesson. We learned the difference between head-trained vines and vertically-trained vines, and heard about suitcase clones and vineyard pests. When it started getting cold, Dave took us inside to taste some of their 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.

I was incredibly excited. I’ve had several different vintages of Lewelling, as it’s (typically) sold at Pearson’s Wine, a shop located just up the block from my office. I missed the 2008 offering, though, as it sold out in just 48 hours.

Dave opened both the Estate bottling and the Wight Vineyard bottling (the Wight bottling is selected from the best barrels), and both were absolutely stunning. Incredible complexity, all sorts of red and black fruits, anise, tobacco, coffee, vanilla. Lively acidity, lingering finish — just excellent. Plus, these wines were elegant. They weren’t nearly as big, bold, and modern as Mike Smith’s Cabs, but they were definitely Napa. The Wights weren’t trying to recreate Bordeaux in St. Helena.

Had any of these wines been for sale, I would have backed up the truck (with a slight preference for the Estate cab, as the differences were subtle enough that I couldn’t see justifying the price difference). Without question, these were my favorite Cabs of the trip — in fact, they were among the best Cabs I’ve had, period.