Revisiting the 2018 Napa Valley Vintage

As the saying goes, the best things in life are worth the wait.

This is the case when we take a look back at the 2018 vintage—the parable of one determined tortoise comes to mind. The warm months of summer were slow and steady, allowing fruit to develop complex flavor and phenolic profiles that served our winemaking team well. The resulting wine has notes of strawberry, fresh carnation, black pepper and vanilla, building in strength and body across the mid-palate. With well-integrated tannins, it’s both a pleasurable pour today and will also reward your patience in the decades to come.

Vintages like 2018—when everything just falls into place—are a winemaker’s dream. These ideal California vintages yield wines of elegance with fine tannic structure that stand the test of time.

Laura Oskwarek, Silver Oak Napa Valley Winemaker

2018 is also the first vintage to wear a new, sustainably conscious label. The modern paper label package also improves our supply chain, cutting our carbon footprint and eliminated waste of both time and rail freight resources.

The new label introduces our famous “cathedral arch” shape design to the Napa Valley bottling, making it easier to distinguish between our two Cabernets. A contemporary and luxurious upgrade, the design also features visual cohesion across other bottlings from our family of brands.