Canadian ex-investment banker Jayson Woodbridge’s excellent California wine adventure began in 2000 with his purchase of a ten-acre clay dome along the Silverado Trail between St. Helena and Calistoga. From its first vintage that year, the Hundred Acre Kayli Morgan Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon has proved to be a remarkably plush, velvety elixir. I can’t think of many other Napa Valley red wines that have exceeded it in consistency since then.

Woodbridge had been seeking a prime site in Napa Valley for several years when vineyard manager Jim Barbour recommended a parcel of land he thought was ideal for Cabernet Sauvignon. It had previously been planted to Sauvignon Blanc but Barbour had ripped out the vines, installed a new irrigation system and planted Cabernet at a dense meter by meter-and-a-half spacing in 1996 for the then-owner. Woodbridge brought in consulting winemaker Philippe Melka, who told him that the soil resembled that of Château Pétrus on the Pomerol plateau. The essentially flat site, which actually slopes down very gently from its center, is sheltered from the northwest to east by hills and thus spared the hot late-afternoon sun. Its ancient fractured clay soil is studded with volcanic glass and pebbles, so it absorbs water slowly and is able to keep the vines cool and resistant to heat spikes—“like natural A.C. for the vines,” says Woodbridge.