Wente Vineyards Southern Hills Cabernet Sauvignon California Red Wine

Cabernet Sauvignon is grown across many wine regions. Our grape research describes it as a red that often turns out firmly structured and is commonly used in red blends. The origin named on this bottle is California.

As for what tends to fill the glass, regional authorities point to dark fruit such as currant, cherry and plum, along with noticeable tannin and possible spice from oak, and they add that ripeness, climate and winemaking can push it toward lean and herbal in style or broad and fruit-led.

Behind the bottle is Wente Vineyards, which says its family winery was founded in Livermore Valley in 1883. That is the company's starting year, not the vintage inside and not a claim about any single planting. No shopper rating is available in the store listing, so there is no crowd average to set beside that history.

As for the money, the price fell between $12.99 and $29.99 at the ten stores we checked in September 2026, which places its low end among the more affordable reds we track.

Wente's product page for the current 2023 vintage narrows the origin further: the appellation is Central Coast, and the wine is 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon at 13.5 percent alcohol. The producer says the fruit comes from its Southern Hills vineyards, about 400 acres planted to two heritage clones the winery traces to nineteenth-century Bordeaux cuttings, grown in well-drained rocky soils. Winemaking notes describe fermentation in stainless steel with the juice pumped over the skins twice daily, followed by twelve months of aging in a mix of French, American and neutral oak barrels along with stainless steel tanks. The producer's tasting notes call it "vibrant notes of blackberries, cassis, and black cherry, complemented by subtle oak flavors of cocoa," with gingerbread undertones, describing the wine as "well-balanced and polished... approachable for immediate enjoyment" while still built with enough "depth and structure" to age. The 2022 vintage of this bottling, part of Wente's Coastal Vineyard Series, earned 90 points from Meridith May at The Tasting Panel, whose review found "tart cranberry, red tea, and clove" framing "vivacious red fruit."

Our call: a solid pick if you want a producer that names its vineyard, its clones and its oak program in detail, backed by a 90-point score from The Tasting Panel on the prior vintage; the price's low end already lands among the more affordable reds we track. Pass if a shopper rating matters to you: none has reached our record for this bottle, so the case rests on the producer's account and one critic, not a crowd.

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