2022 Founders’ Reserve

This exceptional wine was ranked nineteenth out of five hundred in a tasting of the best California 2022 Cabernet Sauvignons by James Molesworth of Wine Spectator (Nov. 15, 2025), who described it as follows: “There’s a solid well of fruit to draw upon in the form of boysenberry and blackberry puree, which picks up tugs of alder, licorice snap, fresh bay leaf and wet earth as everything moves through. Relatively polished in feel, with just a flicker of balsam wood along the edges, which lets the enticing fruit play out lengthily. Drink now through 2036. 48 cases made.”

Ratings

Jeb Dunnuck (Nov. 2025) 96 points
“Lastly, the tiny production 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Founders’ Reserve is up with the crème de la crème of the vintage. Darker currants, scorched earth, graphite, freshly sharpened pencils, and background oak all define the aromatics, and it’s full-bodied, with remarkable concentration and extract, sweet tannins, and a great finish. This brilliant effort needs 2-3 years of bottle age and will evolve gracefully over the following two decades. The Founders’ Reserve is a selection of the best two barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon in the vintage and was aged 19 months in new barrels.”

Vineyard Notes

Our Founders’ Reserve pays tribute to our founders’ Bill and Mary Seavey and was crafted from two special blocks in our estate vineyard that were planted in the 1990s. These blocks, known only to us in-house, provide delicate concentration and tannic structure to produce an elevated and impressive age-worthy Cabernet. The 2022 season began with the vineyard soil profile filled with adequate moisture from abundant rainfall in December followed by zero rainfall in January and February. Dry conditions persisted throughout the vintage followed by a heat spike that lasted ten days in early September, which led to an early harvest. This late heat resulted in a “solid well of fruit to draw upon in the form of boysenberry and blackberry puree,” as put by wine critic James Molesworth.

Production Notes

Seavey separately harvests, vinifies, and ages each vineyard block of our grapes. Our Founders’ Reserve is produced from the best two blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon on our property and amounts to 2-3 barrels. Our winemaking follows classic Bordeaux methods with intensive grape selection, long fermentations, and ageing in the tightest-grain French oak barrels. In the cool of the autumn night, grapes from our 2022 harvest were promptly harvested and delivered within minutes to the winery. Following fermentation, the wine was aged in 100% New French oak barrels for 20 months before bottling in June 2024.

100% ESTATE GROWN, PRODUCED & BOTTLED, NAPA VALLEY AVA