Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Red Wine

Sequoia Grove traces its start to a century-old barn in Rutherford, at the center of Napa Valley, where the winery says James and Barbara Allen founded it in 1979. That is a note about the house, not about what is in this particular bottle. Rutherford sits inside a larger name, and the larger name is the one this wine carries: Napa Valley. Our regional research measures the valley at only about thirty miles from end to end, yet its floor, its hillsides and its mountain sites can differ sharply from one another. So the valley name settles where the fruit was grown, while a smaller area inside it, or a single vineyard, would place it more closely. That research counts Napa Valley a federally recognized American Viticultural Area since 1981, and seventeen smaller AVAs have since been drawn inside its borders.

The grape is Cabernet Sauvignon. Our grape research describes it as a red planted across many regions, one that often builds firm wines and frequently joins red blends. Regional authorities point to black currant, cherry and plum as common fruit references, with noticeable tannin and possible spice from oak; ripeness, climate and winemaking, they add, can shape a wine that is lean and herbal in style or broad and fruit-led. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine. In our September 2026 checks its shelf price ranged from $56.99 to $66.49.

Sequoia Grove's own tasting notes for the current 2021 vintage describe “blackberry cobbler, plum, and black currant” on the nose, with tobacco, vanilla and caramelized fruit alongside; the palate is called “silky and lively”, with raspberry, black cherry and stone fruit running to a finish of cherry and “dark, powdery cocoa”. The producer credits the vintage's character to a dry, mild 2021 growing season: small canopies and berries concentrated flavor, and a light crop let picking finish early, in mid-October. The fruit comes from two estate vineyards in Rutherford, a 24-acre home block and the 50-acre Tonella Vineyard, both farmed under the winery's Certified Napa Green Winery status.

Our call: a fit for a shopper who wants a documented Rutherford estate behind the label; Sequoia Grove's own account of two Certified Napa Green vineyards and a specific, season-by-season description of the 2021 vintage is more detail than most Napa Cabernet at retail discloses on its own pages. Pass if you want a shopper rating to back that story before you spend at this level; none has reached our record, and the estate's account is still the producer's own word, not an outside read.

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