Time Place Wine Co. 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA

The Wine

This wine is a blend of Cabernet grapes from selected vineyards located all over Napa Valley. The 2022 vintage enjoyed a normal spring/summer then got really hot in mid-September, with thermometers reading over 100 for a week, smack dab in the middle of red grape harvests. Time Place Wine Co waited out the heat and saw average yields despite some of the clusters being discarded due to heat damage. The later harvest occurred at different time throughout the valley, from the cooler vineyards close to the Bay to the hotter vineyards in the "Up Valley" locations. Overall, harvests occurred between September 22nd and October 15th.

Once picked, sorted and fermented, 50% of the wine was put into new French oak barrels. The result is a garnet-hued wine with aromas of ripe blackberry, blueberry pie and vanilla with additional complexity lent by notes of mint and fresh pencil shavings. On the palate the wine is lush and rich with flavors of brambly black and red fruits, ripe plum and baker’s chocolate. Finishes long with fine tannins and notes of cassis, orange peel and vanilla.

A word on pricing - "A Napa Cab for under $50?! Is it any good?" you may well ask. I am hear to say we've tasted and approved. If you love Napa Cabs, you may have a new favorite in this well-priced red! 

The Label

For Time Place Wine Co, a special wine helps capture our memory of specific events - the place where we were, the people we were with, the food we ate... everything, the whole gestalt! As such, they work with photographs from John Duckworth that capture specific times and places, such as this one:

TIME | 7:22:14am - 2016-04-20 - Saturday
PLACE | Stono River - Johns Island - South Carolina
"My favorite spot off River Road where I return regularly to climb down a bluff on the side of the road in my hip-waders and walk out into the marsh with my camera gear to document the changing color of the low country marsh."  

The Winery

Our inspiration is the truth that wine is a perfect reflection of time and place, the culmination of climate and season, site and study, and that moment you share a bottle with friends and family.

Winemaker Jamey Whetsone (see photo): "When I moved to Napa Valley from my hometown in South Carolina back in 1996 to manage Mustards Grill, I had no idea how deeply this place would capture my heart. The vibrant community, the lifestyle, and the wine culture pulled me in, and before I knew it, Napa was home.

By 1998, I was diving headfirst into winemaking at Turley Wine Cellars, where I apprenticed until 2005. Along the way, I spent a transformative summer with the Seysses family at Domaine Dujac in Morey-Saint-Denis, an experience that deepened my understanding of winemaking and inspired the foundation of Whetstone Wine Cellars in 2002.

Today, I’m proud to craft wines that over-deliver on quality, bringing passion and a bit of my journey into every glass."