Dana Estates Cabernet Sauvignon "Hershey Vineyard" 2021
(Napa Valley, California) - [WA 99] [JS 99] [JD 99] [VM 97]

DANA’s Director of Winemaking, Maura Johnson, guides the slow journey from vineyard to bottle in collaboration with renowned winemaking consultant Philippe Melka, who has worked with DANA Estates since the inaugural vintage. Together, DANA’s winemakers bring philosophy into action — working always to enhance the natural essence of every site. Rather than imposing a particular characteristic or house style, our winemaking strives to highlight the purity of the land itself.

All of DANA Estates’ vineyards are farmed organically for optimal vine health. After meticulously timed harvest dates that capture every cluster at its peak, our winemaking team vinifies the free run juice from each site according to its character.

Lotus Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ferments in concrete tanks to underscore the site’s natural minerality and round off the edges of its powerful tannins. Helms Vineyard Cabernet ferments in upright Taransaud oak tanks, which help to coax out the site’s floral character, bolster the tannic structure, and enhance the dustiness of Rutherford. With fruit from the varied soils and slopes of Hershey Vineyard, single-barrel fermentation allows us to tend each lot according to its needs. Our newest Cabernet addition, Montagna Vineyard, ferments utilizing a blend of concrete and single barrel ferments, highlighting the structured tannins and unique fruit profile while enhancing the vineyard’s complex mineral notes. DANA Sauvignon Blanc ferments in cigar-shaped barrels, a technique borrowed from Sancerre winemaking, to enhance the wine’s texture and finesse.

Hershey Vineyard
Hershey Vineyard is DANA’s largest and most diverse vineyard site, planted to both red and white grapes. This 35-acre vineyard perches 1800 feet above sea level in the Howell Mountain AVA, where the soils include varying combinations of fractured bedrock, gravel, compressed ash boulders, clay, and white dust. The site’s diversity requires block-specific farming; pick dates are typically four weeks apart for red grapes. Fermented in single barrels to preserve each lot’s unique personality, Hershey Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon offers elegant, linear structure with intriguing savory and mineral notes, and a layered complexity especially beloved by sommeliers.

Ratings and Reviews

99 Points - Wine Advocate:
"The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hershey Vineyard—from a site on Howell Mountain—displays a wonderfully complex bouquet highlighted by floral and piney accents to the black cherries, cassis and plums that cascade forth. Despite all that dark fruit—and aging in 100% new French oak—there's no sense of over-ripeness, just immaculately firm fruit framed by ripe, dusty tannins and a lingering, elegant finish. There is always a certain amount of hemming and hawing that goes into assigning a score like this, but ultimately I would rather be "stingy" than have readers disappointed if the wine doesn't reach their lofty expectations of what a triple-digit score signifies." - Joe Czerwinski (Oct 2024)

99 Points - James Suckling:
"Black cherry, violet, red rose, and black currant aromas follow through to a medium body with firm, silky tannins and a fresh and vivid finish. Refined and long, with a polish and subtle nature. Very persistent. Surprisingly approachable. Give this three to four years to come around." (Feb 2025)

99 Points - Jeb Dunnuck:
"Another superstar here is the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hershey Vineyard, a broad, layered, full-bodied effort that brings everything you could want from a wine. Ripe darker, almost blue fruits, chocolate, orange blossom, and violet notes define the aromatics, and it has incredible purity, a layered, multi-dimensional mouthfeel, flawless balance, and a gorgeous finish. It deserves at least 4-6 years in the cellar, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this be a 50+ year wine." (Jan 2025)

97 Points - Vinous Media:
"The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hershey Vineyard is exotic and dynamic in the glass. Graphite, slate, crushed rocks, lavender and sage meld into a core of dark-toned fruit. Bright acids and beams of tannin pull it all together in grand style. This young Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon has so much to offer, starting with a beguiling mix of aromatics, fruit and structure." - Antonio Galloni (Dec 2024)