Oakville Cab from 2008 for $25? It’s happenin’

You’d be wise to stock those lockers to the brim with it FIRST and then come back to read the rest…

It’s a sick deal, alright. But there’s a whole lot more to this story. When we rolled the NAPA Paulista 2008, “we couldn’t find a trace of info on this wine,” we wrote, foolishly adding, “neither can you. If you do, let us know, and there will be a prize!”

And then…breaking news!! Our winemaker friend Kian Tavakoli cracked the case wide open; he wrote us with inside intel: I MADE IT.

So not only did he get said prize, but this random happenstance also explained the quality in Paulista. You see, Kian, a name you may remember well from our recent offerings from Faustini and Vultour had already cut his teeth at Opus One and Clos du Val way before making Paulista.

That sure was an AHA moment. Prior to this “divine wine intervention,” by all accounts, we thought from our deep research, this never existed. Our sleuthing rarely hits a complete dead end. No Wayback Machine captures of the website. Searching for the name on the back label, “TS Fleckenstein,” turned up nothing.

And we did know one thing. Y’all went BONKERS for the 2008 Firefly. For good reason. Finding an aged Napa Cab for $19 is as rare as hen’s teeth. And given the love for that wine, when this came across the tasting table, we thought, why not? Same price. Same vintage. Same “trust me, bro” factor. It swings the more classic direction, unlike the Firefly, tad less fruit, tad more structure, delicious nonetheless.

Although at that time we had famed Operative Mark Stephens at the tasting table that day. A real-life Operative. So, we asked him, “Hey Mark, would you be happy paying $19 for this?” and he gave us two thumbs up. Trust your fellow Operative AND Agents of Wine!

Oh, and this OAKVILLE bottling? We had to go back to the source and ask, got anything else from Paulista? With bated breath we waited, and then a pallet of this beauty popped up. While the Napa bottling was a complete steal at $19, getting anything with ‘Oakville’ on it for this price is an equally, if not more compelling proposition.

Vintage 2008 Oakville Cab, for just $25, freshly claimed by a winemaking legend!?

That’s all, over and out, once again.