13 Napa Valley Reds

Appealing California wines, including Napa Cabernets priced at $20 or less and outstanding Syrahs

MaryAnn Worobiec
Posted: December 14, 2009

This week we feature a baker’s dozen of red wines from that most famous of California appellations, Napa Valley.

As you might expect from Napa, the list includes some Cabernet Sauvignons, but these aren’t difficult-to-find, break-the-bank versions. Rather, they’re bottles that cost $20 or less.

Included in this list is the debut of Turn Four, a new label by Bennett Lane. If the name rings bells with racing fans, they won’t be surprised to know that Bennett Lane owner Randy Lynch is a former racecar driver and current NASCAR team owner. Cameron Hughes continues to develop his line of value wines and now has multiple bottlings of Napa Valley Cabernet, including the subtle and complex Stags Leap District bottling featured in this report.

Napa Smith Brewery has expanded their operation to include wine, and their impressive, sleek and focused 2007 Napa Merlot is the first bottling we’ve seen from them. Merlot fans should also take note of the PlumpJack and Burgess offerings here.

There are also plenty of Syrah and Rhône-style blends that hail from Napa. The JC Cellars and Skylark bottlings tap grapes from two of the most well-known Syrah vineyards—Caldwell and Stagecoach. Shafer’s Syrah/Petite Sirah blend, Relentless, honors their winemaker, Elias Fernandez. “Mixed blacks” is an archaic wine term that referred to field blends of multiple grapes that are fermented together, and the Girard version blends together Syrah, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, Grenache and Mourvèdre.

4 BEARS Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Sean Minor 2007 Score: 87 | $17

Supple, graceful, complex and harmonious, this is firm and taut, with spicy plum, currant, cedar and mineral notes. Drink now through 2014. 12,000 cases made. —J.L.

Wine Spectator – Top Value Wines

Once again, the Wine Spectator
featured 4 Bears Sauvignon Blanc as one of the top
wine values for 2008. The publication features 85 California wines along with
strategies for selecting great 2009 wine values.  This is the fourth time Wine
Spectator has featured our Sauvignon Blanc in the last 12 issues.

Harvest 2008, Wine Blogging

Here's a fulfilling Napa Cabernet that won't break the bank, with a whimsical name to boot. The style is classic Napa Cab in a medium-bodied structure, with dark currant fruit, moderately drying tannins and a dollop of chocolatly oak. Well-balanced and concentrated, this Cabernet Sauvignon's price point might lead one to assume it couldn't welcome bottle age. But tuck Four Bears under the stairs or in the basement wine rack, and two to four years will reward you with more complexity and softer tannins.

Sean Minor says his Kansas upbringing isn't too odd a background for a California winemaker.

"My parents always enjoyed wines, and my mother's side of the family, we're all farmers," Minor said while in Wichita recently to promote his Four Bears wines.

Silver Medal
2006 Sean Minor Four Bears Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
2005 Four Bears Central Coast Chardonnay
Bronze Medal
2006 Sean Minor Four Bears Napa Valley Merlot
2006 Four Bears Sonoma County Sauvignon Blanc

Reno Gazette-Journal
The folks at 4 Bears wine have a request: Please don't call us a "critter label."
That term is industry pejorative for wines, a la Yellow Tail and Monkey Bay, whose labels exploit consumer attraction to cute critters (and never mind, sometimes, about the quality of what's inside). The bears in 4 Bears are the children of founder and owner Sean Minor; in the Minor family version of the Goldilocks fairy tale, a favoritey of daughter Elle, there are four bears, not three. And instead of gamboling ursines, the 4 Bears label depicts the children's first initials.

Sacramento Bee
Sean Minor, a descendant of a Kansas wheat-growing family, is launching his first two wines under the brand 4 Bears.  He came west to earn a degree in finance at Arizona State University and has been working the business side of the West Coast wine trade since. The name 4 Bears was inspired by his and his wife's young daughter, Elle, who interrupted one of their wine tastings to ask what they were looking for in the wines.