Insider Bargain: Your Next Go-To Napa Red: Bold, Beautiful, and Under $30

2022 Heir Apparent Napa Valley Proprietary Red (Elsewhere $100) $29.99

94 points The Wine Independent: "Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2022 Proprietary Red waltzes out with showy notes of kirsch, wild blueberries, and fresh plums, plus suggestions of lilacs, fragrant soil, and cinnamon stick. The full-bodied palate is plush and plump with bags of juicy red and blue fruit flavors and a lively lift on the finish. (LPB)"

K&L Notes: A powerful Bordeaux inspired blend of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Merlot sourced from top vineyards in Rutherford and Calistoga. The wine was aged for 18 months in French oak (60% new).

Ryan Woodhouse | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: March 06, 2025

Heir Apparent (part of the Grand Napa family) has provided us with some of our very best deals on high-quality Napa Cabernets over the past five years. When the winery needs to clear end-of-vintage inventory, they come to us with exceptional pricing—resulting in some of our most popular and consistently reordered wines. With their estate ideally located off Highway 29 in the heart of Rutherford, plus deep relationships across the valley, their wines always over-deliver.

The 2022 Proprietary Red combines 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Merlot into a compelling, decadent, Bordeaux-inspired blend featuring fruit from Rutherford and Calistoga AVAs. Bold and powerful, it delivers dark fruit, loamy earth, vanilla-tinged oak, cigar box nuances, hints of dark chocolate, and exotic spice. The ripe, soft tannins and mouth-filling texture display impressive purity and polish. It tastes expensive—but as a K&L Insider, you're getting it for a remarkable price. Cheers!

Aaron Hughes | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: March 24, 2025

The nose is slightly dusty, filled with generous notes of fresh and dried cherries, fleshy plum skins, and ripe blackberries. Beneath the fruit, there's a delicate cedar-like floral quality mingling with hints of white flowers, and the faintest suggestion of olive coming softly from the next room.

The palate is fresh and incredibly approachable, offering enough tannin to pair wonderfully with food—but not so much that you couldn't simply enjoy it on its own while cooking or watching your neighbor's kids. There’s a surprising complexity here for a Napa red at this price point, and a couple of bottles are definitely going home with me.

We have a good supply of this wine for now, but bottles of this pedigree at this price probably won’t last long. It's better to be safe than sorry—grab a couple bottles for the holidays. This is exactly the kind of wine you'll want to open for friends and family: impressive enough to excite, yet reasonably priced enough that you won't hesitate to reach for the third bottle of the night.