Far Niente Cabernet Sauvignon California Red Wine

This is a California Cabernet Sauvignon, and in our September 2026 checks it ranged from $105.99 to $140.99.

Our grape research calls Cabernet a red grown in many places that often makes firmly built wines, and a frequent blending partner. Regional authorities reach for black currant, cherry and plum, add noticeable tannin and possible spice from oak, and note that climate and cellar work can move it from lighter and herbal toward fuller and fruit-driven. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine.

So if you are weighing it at the shelf, the call rests on the grape and the price. The house history fills in the background: Far Niente says John Benson founded the winery and Gil Nickel restored it in 1979.

Far Niente's own listing for the current release adds specifics the earlier producer history only implies: the blend runs 98 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 2 percent Malbec, aged 20 months in French oak, 79 percent new barrels and 21 percent once used, and comes from the estate's Martin Stelling Vineyard, named for the property's earlier owner. The producer's appellation page places that vineyard among four named Oakville estate sites, Air Show, Branding Iron, John C. Sullenger and Martin Stelling, on gravelly volcanic soil between 130 and 1,000 feet of elevation, where valley warmth meets cooling air off the bay. The winery's own tasting note, credited to the cellar of winemaker Nicole Marchesi, calls the result “refined and polished” with “silky tannins” and flavors of boysenberry, blueberry and plum.

Our call: this is a bottle for a shopper who buys on documented provenance; the estate names its exact source vineyard, states its oak program down to the barrel mix, and traces its own account back through what it calls 140 years in its stone walls. Pass if you want the crowd's confirmation before spending at this level; no shopper rating has reached our record, so the estate's own account is carrying the full weight of the price.

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