The western edge, bottled on its own.

When the Groth family took the Oakville estate in 1981, a band of Cabernet on the western edge kept tasting like its own wine. Those lots became the Reserve. The 2022 is the finest of that vintage from the Reserve blocks, 12.10 acres with a heavy share of chert, quartz crystals and fossils packed into the rock. The western blocks tasted different enough to leave the blend. What made those lots a wine of their own?

The rock, and the place it sits. Chert holds the heat and the drainage differently from the rest of the ranch. The climate on that edge stays the Oakville one, warm days and a night that cools the clusters. Together they give Cabernet that is elegant and built to age, which is why the house bottles it apart from the wider Oakville cuvee.

Wine Advocate scored this 2022 Reserve a 96 in October 2025. The note, signed JC, treats it as the best lots from the Oakville estate, aged in entirely new oak, and a step past the already terrific 2021. Black cherry and loamy earth sit in a load of almost buttery new oak. The palate is medium to full, plush and expansive, and it stops short of going over the top. The finish is long and velvety. The bottle on this page is that Reserve, at $140.

Twelve acres of chert, farmed to stay

The Reserve vineyard is a 12.10-acre band on the family's Oakville estate. The soil is the story the house tells: a disproportionate amount of chert, hard and compact, quartz and fossils in the stone. That profile, on this climate, is what they bottle when a lot is good enough to stand alone.

The vineyard is sustainably farmed, and it has been Fish Friendly Farming certified since 2014. That certificate is on this Reserve ground. It is not a claim about every vine that feeds the wider Oakville bottling. The 2022 Reserve is these blocks, hand harvested, sorted with care, then given a longer ferment so the chert and the Cabernet both stay in the glass.

The photograph is the Reserve bottle on a table in the vines, red capsule, the estate behind it. Another Groth red sits beside it. The bottle this page sells is the Reserve.

Entirely new oak, then fourteen months in bottle

The blend is ninety-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 3 percent Merlot, and 2 percent Petit Verdot. Every barrel was new French oak. The wine stayed in barrel 22 months, then in bottle 14 months before release. Alcohol is 14.2 percent. The long rest is how a chert Cabernet picks up cedar and cocoa without losing the stone.

Ted Henry, director of winegrowing, describes a deep ruby 2022. Salted caramel, dark berries, a little menthol, chocolate, cedar, date, and blueberry on the nose. The palate moves through tart cherry, light roast coffee, brown sugar, nutmeg, blackberry, dusty tannins, and crushed pepper, into a long finish. Each lot was hand harvested and sorted. The extended ferment and the new oak are what he credits for the structure.

Six bottles are $840. Twelve are $1680, and twelve ship free outside Hawaii and Alaska. Each bottle on this listing is $140.

Black cherry, cacao, and a finish that stays

Decanter scored the same 2022 Reserve a 94 in September 2025. The note, also signed JC, calls it another solid Reserve Cabernet from the Oakville estate. Just 4.8 hectares of Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon are set aside for the Reserve blocks. The blend is ninety-five percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 3 percent Merlot, and 2 percent Petit Verdot, aged 22 months in entirely new French oak. In this vintage the oak leaves a chocolaty imprint, like very fine dark cacao. Black and blue fruit come off the oak spice in layers, and the tannin holds a full wine up. Loamy earth, dried violet, and sage close it, with espresso bean and toasted cedar.

Jeb Dunnuck scored it 94 in December 2025. The flagship of this historic estate, deep purple, and a standout of the vintage: cassis, graphite, spicy wood, and violet, with a kiss of the incense and orange blossom that ran through the year. Medium to full, concentrated, sound in structure, and a great finish. He gives it 15 years in a cold cellar and calls it a clear success in a difficult vintage. The note does not print a separate taster name. The score is the publication's. Open it an hour before dinner if you are pouring it tonight. Henry's house note agrees on the length of the finish.

This listing is $140. The winery price is $190. Members type FEATURED20 at checkout for an extra 20 percent off. The corner above has the Wine-Searcher check and the link to the public find page.

The villa, and the winery's own films

The estate the family bought in 1981 is still the one on Oakville Cross Road. The pink villa, the arched window, the tile roof, the cellar of barrels behind the glass. The Reserve blocks are the western edge of that property. This 2022 is those blocks after 22 months in new oak and 14 months in bottle.

This 2022 Reserve has not been named to Wine Spectator's Top 100 list. Past vintages have. The 2016 Reserve Cabernet famously ranked No. 4 on the 2019 list. The films below are the winery's own. One welcomes you to the house. The other is this Reserve Cabernet, about the wine's place here rather than a tasting from a shop.

The bottle you add is the 2022 Groth Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville, at $140. Chert, entirely new French oak, and Wine Advocate's 96.

Groth Vineyards and Winery, Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery's own film.

Welcome to Groth Vineyards and Winery. The winery's own film.

Filet with pepper, or beets and goat cheese

The house pours this Reserve with filet mignon and a black pepper sauce. Steak au poivre is that plate. The pepper in the sauce meets the crushed pepper Henry finds in the wine, and the tannin, filed fine, handles the beef without shouting over it. Garlic scalloped potatoes can sit on the side. Open the bottle before you sear.

The other plate is lighter, and it still belongs. Roasted beets, soft goat cheese, pistachios. The earth in the beets finds the loam and the violet in the Cabernet. The cheese softens the dusty tannin. A blue cheese crostini does a similar job if you want the saltier version. Both leave the 2022 tasting like the western blocks.