Pilcrow Glass Rock Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville 2022

The Glass Rock Vineyard in Coombsville serves as the backdrop for this story of rejuvenation and awakening. It begins with a young couple who bought a property in this charming AVA, drawn to an endearing home that overlooks a vineyard and meadow. At first, they paid little attention to the vines. But a chance conversation revealed a shocking reality: the vines were being chemically farmed with herbicides, pesticides, and petro-fertilizers. The “healthy” Napa Valley life they thought they were living was at odds with what was actually happening beneath their very feet.

That revelation changed everything. Once the veil was lifted, they couldn’t ignore it. Within months, they canceled their contract with the winery that had been farming the vineyard for many years and instead partnered with Jonah and Sara Beer of Pilcrow to breathe new life into the land. Together, the two couples began a journey of renewal: stopping irrigation, inviting cows into the vineyard in winter, applying compost and biodynamic teas, retraining old vines, and planting new ones. Today, after many years of complex rehabilitation, the habitat corridors now hum with life, hedging has ceased, and the vines grow in harmony with the ecosystem that surrounds them. What was once chemically dependent has become vibrant, self-sustaining, and intensely alive. The cost of this transformation? Lower yields—but fruit of extraordinary character. The couple embraced this wholeheartedly, saying, “You have given us the best gift… a life among the vines that we never knew we wanted and now can’t live without.”

And what a vineyard this has become! Glass Rock sits atop an improbable terroir—born of violent earthquakes that shattered the Vaca Mountains and left behind a jumble of silica-rich rock unlike any other site in Napa. Dry-farmed Cabernet Sauvignon now pushes its roots into this fractured earth, finding both nourishment and stress, yielding fruit of striking purity and complexity. In the glass, the 2022 Glass Rock Cabernet Sauvignon is both powerful and graceful. Aromas of black plum, crushed violets, and graphite rise above a core of dark cherry and cassis. The palate reveals layers of mineral tension and savory spice, framed by fine tannins that stretch long into a persistent finish. This is a wine that speaks with quiet authority, shaped by resilience, renewal, and a sense of place.