1000 Stories Bourbon Barrel-Aged Cabernet Sauvignon California Red Wine

The name leads with bourbon barrels and leaves the rest unsaid. Here is the part it skips: 1000 Stories says Bob Blue began aging the brand's wine in bourbon barrels in 2013.

Beneath that name is Cabernet Sauvignon from California. Grape guides describe Cabernet as a red grown in many wine regions, one that often makes firmly built wines and is a common part of red blends. Those same guides point to black currant, cherry and plum as common fruit references, with noticeable tannin and, with oak, a little spice on top.

As for the shelf, its regular price came to $22.99 in our August 2026 checks. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine.

That leaves the bourbon-barrel question with you. Do you want a Cabernet aged in bourbon barrels, or one that never was?

The producer's page for this wine narrows the origin to Lodi, California, under winemaker Sebastián Donoso. The bourbon-barrel treatment in the name is not unique to this bottle inside the portfolio; the producer ages three of its reds, Zinfandel, this Cabernet Sauvignon and its Red Blend, in bourbon barrels, while Pinot Noir and Chardonnay get American oak instead and the Sauvignon Blanc none at all. For this wine specifically, the producer says the process runs the wine through American and French oak first, then finishes it in bourbon barrels, a sequence it credits for notes of caramel, dried herb and smoke layered onto the grape's usual dark cherry, blueberry and prune. The producer's own tasting note calls the result 'medium-bodied with firm tannin structure for a long finish' and suggests three to four years of cellaring.

The bourbon-barrel idea traces to 2013, when the producer's winemaker at the time, Bob Blue, first aged a Zinfandel that way; the producer credits that wine as California's first bourbon barrel-aged release, and the line went to market in 2014. The company has held B Corporation certification since 2015.

Our call: a reasonable pick for a shopper who wants the bourbon-barrel story confirmed, not just implied by the name; the producer names Lodi, California as the source, Sebastián Donoso as winemaker, and lays out the American-and-French-oak-then-bourbon-barrel sequence in its own words. Pass if you buy on a shopper track record; no rating has reached our record yet, so nothing here has been tested by a crowd.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Aug 17, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.