Gagnon-Kennedy 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon, Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard, Rutherford, Napa Valley

Unearthing the Gagnon‑Kennedy Beckstoffer Georges III 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon feels personal—like tracing a hillside memory rather than reading a tasting sheet. On first swirling the glass, blackberry and cassis drift upward, stitched with violet bloom, clove dust, and a thread of graphite. It’s completeness that doesn’t announce itself—it lingers, asking you to stay with it.

The palate follows the mood. Fruit unfolds across the middle—plush but not glossy—then gathers itself. Fine-grained tannins dust the finish, the wine drawing taut around itself. There’s weight, yes, but also lift; the seam holding it together is mineral tone, not molasses.

Place is present throughout this wine’s architecture. Beckstoffer Georges III occupies the Rutherford bench, where ancient alluvial soils, clay, and gravel shape a distinct return of power and restraint. In 2022, that geography was a gift: an early heat wave tested the vines, but the depth of these soils and careful farming allowed a later, more measured harvest to happen. The result: fruit that ripened fully but held backbone. 

Even vineyard legacy echoes in the bottle. Georges III is among Napa’s first named vineyards—planted in the 1890s—and the fruit here is treated with the kind of deference that comes from centuries of turning soil into something expressive. Gagnon‑Kennedy doesn’t layer it in oak for theatrics, but frames it in purpose. 

This Cabernet talks less and stays longer. It’s meant for conversation, not spectacle—for evenings where memory emerges slowly, like spice turning into smoke and then into silence.

Gagnon-Kennedy Georges III 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon—Napa’s depth, not shown off, but lived in