Marietta Cellars Game Trail Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

Marietta Cellars has managed a rare feat in California: staying family-owned, fiercely independent, and consistently over-delivering on quality for over forty years. While their “Old Vine Red” is a permanent fixture in our daily drinker section, the 2022 Game Trail Cabernet Sauvignon is where they really flex their mountain-grown muscles.

This isn’t your plush, valley-floor Napa Cab. The fruit comes from a single block perched at 1,400 feet in the rugged Yorkville Highlands of Mendocino. It’s a site defined by rocky shale soils and a dramatic coastal influence—cold nights and windy days that force the vines to struggle. The result? Tiny, thick-skinned berries that trade “jammy” for “structural.”

It’s an authentic expression of a fringe terroir, made by people who prioritize soul over status symbols. It’s drinking beautifully now with a decant, but if you have a cool corner in your cellar, this will be even more compelling in five to ten years.