Whenever someone mentions great Napa Cabs, thoughts of $100 wines generally follow. Not that there are not many good ones below that price point; there are. But I did say, great. Now along comes Raymond Vineyards with their District Series of three limited production wines that express the terroir of three Napa appellations; St. Helena, Oakville and Rutherford. All three wines have different flavor profiles, which one would expect from three distinctly different regions.

However, if you look at a map of Napa Valley, you'll discover that St. Helena is the only town of consequence, with Rutherford below it and Oakville right below that on the highway 29/Silverado Trail axis. How can three adjacent areas in the valley all express different qualities in the fruit? Just check what a Rutherford Cab typically goes for compared with surrounding subregions. For those that believe in the concept of terroir the answer is obvious.

I tasted these three wines under ideal conditions. Each wine had been opened and poured into a red heart-shaped Baccarat crystal decanter to fully open up, with glasses arranged in a flight. That's something you don't see every day. How good were they? Well, all three are now resting in my wine cellar, because I couldn't decide which one I liked best. At $60 each retail, these are not cheap wines by any means, but I'm willing to bet they'd beat out a lot of those $100 wines in a blind tasting. Each is well balanced with defined fruit flavors and complex spices from oak and winemaking alchemy.

Check out the website here and make a point to visit the winery on your next trip to Napa. You will not be disappointed.