Oakville is home to some of the finest Cabernet Sauvignon vines and terroir in the world. In the heart of the Napa Valley, this appellation possesses an excellent diurnal variation as well as a diversity of volcanic and riverbed soils that create some of the most complex Cabernet Sauvignon wines each year.

For Mondavi’s Oakville Cabernet, the grapes—80%+ Cabernet Sauvignon plus Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot—are hand-harvested into small bins and carefully sorted in the gravity-flow cellar. Clusters are gently destemmed directly into traditional French oak tanks for cold soak, fermentation and extended maceration–a total of 27 days of wine to skin contact–maximizing the extraction of varietal character and complexity while keeping the tannins fleshy and supple. The new wine is drained and gently pressed into 72% new French-oak barrels for malolactic fermentation, assuring seamless integration of fruit and oak. The final blend is assembled through repeated tasting trials over the 22 months of barrel aging.