Decoy Limited Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Alexander Valley runs along the Russian River and the benchlands beside it for about twenty miles in northern Sonoma County. It is its own recognized federal wine district. That one valley name still covers a lot of ground: elevation, distance from the river and which way a slope faces the sun all change what a vineyard experiences from block to block. Summers there are warm and dry. Ocean air moving in along the river cools things off, though how much cooling reaches a particular vineyard depends on where it sits in the valley. Cabernet Sauvignon, the grape in this bottle, grows in many wine regions and often makes a firmly built wine. Guides on the grape point to black currant, cherry and plum as typical fruit notes, with noticeable tannin and possible spice from oak. Those same guides say ripeness and winemaking choices can push a Cabernet toward lean and herbal in one glass and broad and fruit-led in another.

The number of shopper ratings so far is 1. That rating is 5 out of five. A single rating cannot describe how most people would find this wine, but it stands as the only shopper account we have for it right now.

The store listing showed it priced from $26.99 to $39.99 in our September 2026 checks. Decoy says the brand was established in 1985 and became its own stand-alone winery in 2008.

Decoy's own product data fills in the blend behind the label: 94 percent Cabernet Sauvignon to 6 percent Merlot, at 13.9 percent alcohol. The producer's tasting notes for the 2023 vintage describe dark fruit aromas of ripe blueberry, violet and sweet blackberry with cardamom and clove spice, moving to soft tannins and a full-bodied palate carrying boysenberry and blackberry through a long finish. At the brand level, Decoy names two Alexander Valley estate vineyards, Ridgeline and Brownell, as backbone sources for its Cabernet Sauvignon, though the producer does not state that this Limited-tier bottling draws only from those two sites; Decoy Limited's own general description also credits acclaimed California vineyard sources beyond its estates.

Our call: this suits a shopper buying on stated vineyard sourcing and a real blend, 94 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 6 percent Merlot from Alexander Valley, with Decoy naming its own estate vineyards as backbone sources for the variety. Pass if you want the crowd's confirmation before spending at this level: a single shopper rating is the only account we have, one shopper's score, not a reputation, so the producer's account and the confirmed blend are carrying the case.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.