2002 Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley

Five bottles available. Still going, twenty-four years on.

Alexander Valley is the original Silver Oak. Ray Duncan and Justin Meyer founded the winery in 1972 and this was the first wine they made; the Napa bottling did not start until 1979. It is the brighter, higher-Cabernet, earlier-drinking of the two, and it is the one that made the house style famous.

The American oak thing

Silver Oak ages everything in American oak, roughly two years of it, and that is the whole signature: vanillin, coconut, dill and sweet cedar wrapped around the fruit. People either love it or find it too much, and Silver Oak has never pretended to be for everyone. They committed hard enough that in 2000 they bought a half stake in a Missouri cooperage, which now makes around three thousand barrels a year for them alone. Not many wineries own their own trees.

Where this bottle came from

Bought from a private collector, not off the open market. The people we buy from are ones we know, who bought on release and stored the wine properly for decades. Nothing enters our inventory without someone here looking at the bottle first.

In the glass

The Wine Advocate found abundant spice, vanillin, cedar, herbs and smoke over black cherry and currant. What is more useful is that Decanter went back to it in September 2024, twenty-two years on, and scored it 93, describing layers of loamy earth, truffle, currant, white pepper and tobacco. The oak has folded in and the savoury side has come forward. This is a mature Cabernet now, not a fruit-forward one.

Critic scores

• 93 points · Decanter, tasted September 2024
• 91 points · Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine
• 90 points · The Wine Advocate, December 2005

The details

• Producer: Silver Oak Cellars
• Appellation: Alexander Valley AVA, Sonoma County, California
• Vintage: 2002, a strong California Cabernet year
• Ageing: around 24 months in American oak, then bottle age before release
• Format: 750ml
• Drinking window: now. Fully mature and drinking well, per Decanter in 2024.

Serving and pairing

Decant an hour ahead and serve at 62°F. Grilled ribeye, brisket, or anything off a smoker. The American oak makes this one of the few mature Cabernets that genuinely likes barbecue.

Five bottles. Once it is gone we cannot reorder it. Ships from our Florida cellar. Browse more Cabernet.