McKahn Wines estate spotlight
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this 2023 McKahn Wines 'Morning Glass' Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley across the open market. Their published U.S. low is $25.11 and the average is $34.36. Our slash is $40.00.
2023 McKahn Wines Morning Glass Cabernet Sauvignon
Charles McKahn's Napa Cabernet, a family bottle named for still morning water, James Suckling 91, openable at twenty-four dollars.
The family sold a ski boat so Charles could start a winery at 25. This is their Napa Valley Cabernet, 100 percent, cork, 14.9 percent alcohol, labeled Morning Glass. James Suckling scored the 2023 91 points. The live bottle is $24.
Napa Cabernet you can actually open tonight
Most Napa Cabernet waits for a birthday. This one is built for the steak that is already in the pan. Charles McKahn learned the cellar at Chappellet on Pritchard Hill under Phillip Titus, then made wine at William Harrison in Rutherford. The family founded McKahn Wines in 2014. Morning Glass is the name they gave still water at dawn on Lake San Antonio. James Suckling put 91 points on the 2023 and told you to try it in 2027 if you can leave it alone. The live bottle is $24.
The house
Charles McKahn. Cal Poly enology. Chappellet. William Harrison. A family winery since 2014.
The wine
Morning Glass Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, 2023. 100 percent Cabernet. Cork. 14.9% ABV.
The score
James Suckling 91 on this vintage. Dark fruit, crushed rock, licorice, sage. Try in 2027.
The table
Ribeye, lamb, a Saturday roast. A Napa Cabernet that does not need a speech before the first pour.
James Suckling 91 on this exact vintage
The winery published the 2023 Napa Valley Cabernet shelf talker with James Suckling's note. That is the named critic lock for this bottle.
Blackcurrant first. Then the rocks.
Suckling's 2023 note is the vintage tasting. Dark fruit, crushed rock, licorice, sage. Taut in the middle. Smooth on the way out.
A cool, even California year. The label is Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, 2023, 14.9 percent alcohol, cork. Suckling says try it in 2027. It drinks now with air and a steak.
Blackcurrants, crushed rocks, licorice, and dried sage. Dark and lightly earthy, not jammy.
Full-bodied, taut and chewy yet polished. Vivid dark fruit sits in the middle of the glass.
Even and smooth. Serve near 62 F. A short decant if you want the sage and rock to step forward.
Charles shepherds the fruit. The place does the talking.
McKahn Wines is a Napa house that sources from growers who farm the site they want, then bottles under one family name. Charles has said his job is to make a wine taste like the variety and the place it came from.
Charles started in the lab and cellar at McManis in 2007, studied enology at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and moved to Napa in 2011 for harvest at Chappellet on Pritchard Hill. Phillip Titus kept him. He left as assistant winemaker for William Harrison in Rutherford in 2016. McKahn Wines is the family label that started in 2014, when he was 25.
This bottle is 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley. Natural cork. 14.9 percent alcohol. The 2023 is the Morning Glass Cabernet, not the older Morning Glass Rhone blends from Sonoma or the Sierra Foothills.
A ski boat, a family, a cave in Soda Canyon
Denise convinced Kevin and Charles to start the label. They sold the ski boat. The name Morning Glass is that lake at 6:30 in the morning, water lying smooth as glass.
Kevin, Denise, Brittany, and Charles run McKahn Wines from Napa. Charles is the first winemaker in the family. Denise spent decades in Livermore wine, Wente then Concannon, before the family label. They craft at The Caves at Soda Canyon, a hillside cave on Atlas Peak Road with a view of the southern valley.
Morning Glass began as the family's second wine, an homage to summers at Lake San Antonio. The 2023 on this page is the Napa Valley Cabernet bottling of that name. The label is cream and navy. The vintage is on the glass.
Charles was a North Bay Business Journal Forty Under 40 in 2022. In 2026 he also joined Titus Vineyards as winemaker. This bottle is still the family Cabernet.
Ribeye with rosemary. Lamb with sage.
Dried sage is already in the glass. Give it fat, char, and a dark pan sauce.
Gordon Ramsay's ribeye, November 2024. A cooking video for the steak pairing, not a winery film.
Serve near 62 F in a Bordeaux glass. A 20 to 40 minute decant if you want the crushed rock and sage to catch up with the blackcurrant.
Pan-seared ribeye
Hard sear, rosemary, the juices left in the pan. Cabernet tannin wants that fat.
Why it works: Blackcurrant and sage already sit in the 2023 note. Ribeye gives them a place to land.
View Recipe for reverse-sear steak (opens in a new tab)
Rosemary garlic rack of lamb
Pink rib, herb crust, roasted garlic. The chew in the wine meets the chew on the bone.
Why it works: Licorice and dried sage in the nose, lamb fat on the plate. Same register.
View Recipe for rosemary garlic rack of lamb (opens in a new tab)A Napa Cabernet that belongs on the table, not in a speech.
Charles McKahn. Morning Glass. James Suckling 91. The bottle is $24.
If you have been waiting for a Napa Cabernet you will actually pull on a weeknight, this is that bottle. Take it while it is on the shelf.
