This is a 1995 Napa Valley Cabernet with three decades of age on it, from a house that was barely ten years old when the vintage came in and was built on the idea that wine gets made in the vineyard. Frank Altamura was born and raised in Napa, began his viticultural training at Sterling in 1976 and spent five years at Caymus. His view is that the winemaker's job is about 10% of the process and the other 90% happens out in the vines. For Altamura, those vines are in Wooden Valley, a small, almost round volcanic valley nine miles northeast of the town of Napa. Fog banks and afternoon breezes can keep it as much as 10 degrees cooler than the Napa Valley average, which makes for a long growing season. Frank's approach to planting was gloriously nerdy: he used the USDA soil survey to find spots on the family ranch with soils like those of the Rutherford Bench, Howell Mountain, Pritchard Hill and Mount Veeder. For anyone curious how a 1990s Napa Cabernet from a lesser-known corner of the appellation holds up after this long, it's a rare chance to find out.