PRESS Chef's Counter

Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignon — Pricing varies by vintage on list

Mayacamas is one of Napa's most undersung mountain producers — structured, age-worthy, and typically priced below the flashier valley floor names. In a cellar stocked with Bond and Abreu at four-figure price points, a well-aged Mayacamas Cab is where you find actual relative value without sacrificing pedigree.

Ridge Vineyards (verticals beyond Monte Bello)

Everyone at the table is going to be eyeing the Napa Cabs, but Ridge's representation across multiple cuvées and vintages is an underappreciated thread running through this list. Ridge makes wines that age differently — less opulent, more cerebral — and in a room full of people chasing the big Napa names, the Ridge selections tend to be the ones with room to breathe, literally and figuratively.

Entry-level Napa Cabernet Sauvignon by lesser-known producers

At a restaurant with this kind of cellar depth, ordering the cheapest bottle from an unfamiliar producer is a real waste. The markups here are steep across the board, and if you're going to pay PRESS prices, you should be paying them for a wine that justifies the room you're sitting in. The list rewards ambition — don't default to the bottom of it.

Heitz Cellar Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon + Wood-fired steak course

Martha's Vineyard Cab has that signature eucalyptus-edged dark fruit profile that was practically built for charred, hearth-driven beef. The wine's structural tannins and age-derived complexity hold up against the smoke and richness of a proper wood-fired steak in a way that younger, fruitier Cabs simply don't. This is a once-in-a-while pairing — and PRESS is one of the few places you can actually pull it off.