FORMAN
Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
Choosing our Wine of the Year wasn’t easy; we tasted a lot of great wines in 2024. But this year, we wanted to honor more than greatness. We wanted to honor commitment. And we wanted to honor a winemaker who has never put himself in the limelight, preferring to let his wines do the talking. For sixty years, Ric Forman has quietly been making some of the most legendary wines in Napa Valley. Much of that time was as a winemaker for others. But in 1983, Forman also went out on his own, founding, on a mountain ridge top, a small winery where he could make a tiny amount of Napa Valley Cabernet in what he calls a “European style.” Precise, vivid, rich and sleek, it’s a Cabernet with a beautiful, even majestic, arc of flavor. Forman is a master of (soft) tannin and (long) length. This wine’s velvety suppleness keeps going and going and going. It’s a mesmerizing Cabernet from a man with a huge track record. I’m happy to say that Forman Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 from Napa Valley is our Wine of the Year.
