Cabernet Franc is Napa’s secret weapon, and winemakers around the valley know it.
Its name may not always grace the label, but it’s the scene-stealing player in iconic Napa Valley bottlings like Dalla Valle’s Maya. Napa vintners render the grape with precision, finesse, and cut, but as this bottling shows, it can flex statuesque power with the absolute best of them.
The 2022 Silver Ghost Cab Franc comes from Weston Eidson, one of the hottest young winemakers in Napa and a protégé of 100-point superstar Russell Bevan. Weston has become one of our favorites because he takes a full-throttle winemaking style—honed by his time with Bevan—pairing it with a nearly unmatched talent for finding NDA-protected grapes at bargain prices.
Napa Valley is awash in Cabernet Sauvignon, but Cab Franc—despite the fact that it’s enjoying a long-deserved appreciation—is still quite a rarity. Accounting for less than 3% of the plantings in Napa Valley, it’s represented in smaller amounts than Zinfandel, which is on the Napa Valley endangered species list.
It’s early, but the case for the glorious 2022 season being considered one of the better vintages of an exceptional decade is growing stronger. Marked by unusual warmth in September that drove ripeness and created lush, opulent wines, Decanter declared “wine quality expected to be high” across the board.
Now for the story to share with your friends: The name “Silver Ghost” is a reference to the 1909 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, the favorite car of John Montagu, Eidson’s great-grandfather. Montagu was a British Lord, a member of Parliament, and an early pioneer in the automobile industry. Montagu even picked the model whose form adorns the “Spirit of Ecstasy,” Rolls-Royce’s iconic hood ornament.