2023 Chappellet 'Signature' Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon is a benchmark for long-lived hillside wines of Napa Valley. 2023 is approving to be a perfect vintage for the dry, rocky soils of Pritchard Hill. Small intensely flavored grapes give a seductively forward wine full of structure and aging potential. Decanter loved it:
“It’s got everything you could want and more: blue and black fruit, graphite and iron, violets, and fragrant toasty oak spices. Over the coming years, these elements will mellow and knit together into a beautifully complex, fragrant, and flavourful wine. For now, it’s bold, ripe, and seductively pure – so alluring you’ll struggle to put the glass down. Nuances of dark roasted coffee and dark chocolate weave fine threads of character through a bed of super-fine-grained tannins. Totally captivating.”– Decanter 97 points.
A fantastic wine that should be part of your cellar or dining table.
If you asked us for our list of Napa Valley wineries currently making the highest quality, most complete, most consistent, most interesting, most ageworthy wines for the money, Chappellet Winery would be at the top. Consider all the metrics: track record, intrinsic quality, taste of the soil, availability, quality-price rapport, freshness, and visceral excitement. Is this the finest winery, top-to-bottom, in the Napa Valley? Why are the wines so good? First, take a great terroir: volcanic terraces high on Pritchard Hill that were first planted in 1882. It’s no accident that Colgin, Continuum, and Bryant Family set up shop in the neighborhood. Then we have 47 years of accumulated knowledge from some of the best winemaking talent the valley has ever seen: Philip Togni, Joe Cafaro, Tony Soter, Cathy Corison and finally Philip Corallo-Titus, who has been at the winemaking helm since 1990. And finally there’s the huge Chappellet family, dedicated as a team to farm great grapes and make superb wines since 1968.
Decanter
All of the Chappellet red wines in 2023 are simply dazzling. They capture the classic hallmarks of a cool vintage—blue-fruit fireworks mingling with black fruit and spice, and a towering tannic structure built for long-term cellaring. The Pritchard Hill and Hideaway wines are standouts, and in a photo finish, this Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon serves as a true standard-bearer and benchmark for the region. It’s got everything you could want and more: blue and black fruit, graphite and iron, violets, and fragrant toasty oak spices. Over the coming years, these elements will mellow and knit together into a beautifully complex, fragrant, and flavourful wine. For now, it’s bold, ripe, and seductively pure – so alluring you’ll struggle to put the glass down. Nuances of dark roasted coffee and dark chocolate weave fine threads of character through a bed of super-fine-grained tannins. Totally captivating.
James Suckling
Densely packed with dark-fruit aromas of currants, blackberry compote, coffee beans, tobacco leaves and mulberries. The palate is full-bodied with finely tuned tannins and balanced acidity that lead into a textural, concentrated finish. Nicely constructed with freshness beneath the power. Drink or hold.
Wine Enthusiast
Mouthwatering with a silky texture, this wine delivers flavors of ripe stone fruits accompanied by accents of tropical fruits and pears, with a long line of refreshing minerality. The wine has tons of persistence, but is also full of flavor and depth. Attractive and delicious, it will do well with a meal.
Jeb Dunnuck
Dense purple-hued, the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Signature offers up cassis, ripe blue fruits, graphite, scorched earth, and leafy tobacco, with a Pauillac-like lead pencil character that develops as the wine sits in the glass. It's medium to full-bodied and concentrated on the palate, with ripe tannins and nicely integrated acidity. Very much in the style of the vintage, it should have 15-20 years of overall longevity. Drink 2025-2045.
Wine Advocate
Another excellent wine slated for release in early 2026, Chappellet's 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Signature combines hints of scorched oak and mocha with mixed red and black cherries, plus underlying cassis fruit. Sourced from various mountain sites in Napa Valley, it's medium- to full-bodied, richly textured and concentrated, with a long, velvety finish.