Sipping Your Way Through December—Day 12

Welcome to today’s installment of The Wine Chef’s December “Advent Calendar” wine series.

Here’s a gift for that impossible-to-impress California wine lover. You know exactly the type. The one who can tell their mountain Cabs from their valley-floor bottlings. It may be a splurge, but it’s the kind of bottle that wins them over every time.

The Moone Tsai Hillside Red Blend 2021 is everything a Napa connoisseur craves: powerful, sophisticated, meticulously crafted, and, perhaps most importantly, under the radar. This is the opposite of those overexposed (and overpriced) cult wines everyone knows. This is the bottle that makes people lean in and ask, "Where did you find this?"

With 63% Cabernet Sauvignon and 37% Merlot, this blend invites you in with intense aromas of crushed blackberry and black cherry, layered with cedar and cocoa. The Merlot brings a polished, almost velvety texture that makes the wine approachable now. But it’s the Cabernet that gives the wine its magic: firm mountain tannins and age-worthy structure that promise this bottle will only get better over the next decade, if you can hold off drinking it, that is.

Behind this wine are MaryAnn and Larry Tsai, who launched Moone-Tsai back in 2003 with an ambitious idea to craft rare, remarkable wines from Napa’s most coveted vineyards. They knew exactly the kind of fruit they wanted to work with, and they weren’t shy about aiming high. That clarity of vision led them straight to Howell Mountain, whose volcanic soils, elevation, and cooler temperatures deliver some of Napa’s most structured, powerful Cabernets.

To bring that vision to life, they partnered with Philippe Melka, one of Bordeaux’s most respected consulting winemakers. With him at the helm, they began producing small-lot Cabernets, Chardonnays, and Bordeaux blends, including their now-signature Howell Mountain Hillside Blend.

At an SRP of $170, it's priced like the luxury wine it is, and you can find it through select retailers or directly from the winery.