Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon California Red Wine

Cabernet Sauvignon is a long name for a plain job. It is a red grape planted across many wine regions, and official regional guides describe it as one that tends to build firm, sturdy wines and turns up often as a common part of red blends. Those guides reach for black currant, cherry and plum when they name the fruit, with a grip of tannin and, where oak is used, some spice. They also note that how ripe the grapes get, how warm the vineyard runs, and how the winery handles them all push the result around, so two Cabernets can land far apart, one lean and leafy, the next broad and fruit-forward.

Kendall-Jackson hands you two things anyone can check: a year, 1982, that it calls the start of its family-grown run, and a street, Fulton Road in Santa Rosa, where it keeps its Wine Estate & Gardens. Its shopper rating on the store listing averages 4.64 out of five, from 11 ratings, a shade below the 4.71 median of the rated reds we track, and as of August 12, 2026 the price sat between $19.99 and $26.99 across five stores.

Kendall-Jackson's own product page for the current 2023 vintage confirms exactly what is in the blend: 76 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec and Petite Sirah rounding it out in small percentages, and the finished wine lists 14.5 percent alcohol. The producer describes cold soaking and extended maceration, cellar choices it says pull more color and soften tannin before fermentation, and sources the fruit from mountain and hillside vineyards it calls certified sustainably grown. The producer's own tasting notes name black cherry, blackberry and cassis on the nose with cedar, vanilla and mocha on the finish, the maker's words.

Our call: pick it if a producer's stated history and a fully disclosed blend are your test; Kendall-Jackson's family-grown claim comes with a year and an address, and the bottle's own blend, led by 76 percent Cabernet Sauvignon with five other grapes named and percentaged, is stated just as plainly. Pass if you lean on scores first: its average lands below the middle of the rated reds we cover, and the estate story ends up doing most of the work.

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