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Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 (Napa Valley)
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By Daniel Min · Tasted 2023-02-06 · Published 2026-09-30 · Updated 2026-09-30
At a glance
In one line
5.0/5 — higher than Vivino's 4.2 average · world avg price US$57 · A backyard in Atlanta, an American-beef barbecue, moonlight.
Wine-Searcher aggregate of 8 critic reviews: 91. Quoted on wine.com: James Suckling 93 · Wine Enthusiast 92 · Wine Spectator 92 · Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 91 (checked Sep 2026). Award: Gold, Los Angeles Invitational Wine & Spirits Challenge. No critic reviews are listed on Vivino.
Market note: World average price US$57 / 750ml (Wine-Searcher, ex-tax, Sep 2026). The same house's Stags Leap District Cabernet is US$99 and its Reserve Cabernet US$192 on the same basis. Per the producer's tech sheet: 16 months in French oak (44% new), bottled March 2021. This is Clos du Val's entry-level Napa Cabernet.
Father's note — Daniel Min
Original author of the notes“미국 애틀랜타에 가서 마트에서 켄달 잭슨, 메이오미와 함께 세 병을 사 와 정말 맛있게 마셨다. 이날은 미국 소고기를 사다가 뒤뜰에서 바비큐를 해 먹으며 같이 마셨다. 미국의 달빛도 기억나고, 분위기가 너무 좋았다.”
Show original
“미국 애틀랜타 현지에 가서 마트에서 켄달 잭슨이랑 메이오미랑 세 병을 사 와서 정말 맛있게 먹었다. 이날 미국 소고기를 사다가 바비큐 해 먹으면서 같이 먹었다. 미국의 달빛도 기억나고 분위기가 너무 좋았다. 뒤뜰에서 먹었다.”
What I learned today: even a memory left without a scent can be filled in later with a single glass.
Monday. The first weekday of the new year, and the alley was quiet. When I came in around seven after switching on the sign, Master Seo had a bottle standing on the counter. In the middle of its reddish-brown label, three women stood with their arms around each other. Tonight's glass, he said.
I took the glass and put my nose to it. Deep purple. Blackberry, plum, vanilla, something like dry tobacco leaf, and leather at the end. Every scent was clear, but this time no day opened up. No kitchen table, no window, no weather. It was a scent I'd never smelled before.
But I had seen the three women on the label. My eyes remembered before my nose did. I scrolled a long way back through the photos on my phone. Winter when I was twenty-four, when Father was away in America. I woke up one morning to a single photo from him. Three bottles standing side by side on a table. Not a word with it. It must have been night where he was. I don't remember what I wrote back. The bottle on the right had these three women on it. So this is what a memory without a scent looks like, I thought. Just a date and a picture, and the smell line left blank.
I opened the notebook to that date. It's one of the rare pages in Father's notes without a single line about taste. That he bought three bottles at the supermarket. That he bought American beef and drank them over a barbecue in the backyard. That he remembers the American moonlight, and the mood was wonderful. Five stars. The bottle was Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon — the same house as the Pinot Noir Master Seo poured me in the autumn. I stuck on a wine-name Post-it. There's no moon in the photo. The moonlight is only in the note. Maybe Father took one photo at the table, then carried the bottles out to the backyard.
Master Seo told me the three women on the label are the Three Graces. It's a drawing of a sculpture of them, and it has been on the label ever since this house put out its very first bottle. He also told me how a young winemaker who grew up in Bordeaux travelled from country to country looking for the right Cabernet ground and chose this land in Napa. Minjae, who came in late, looked at the photo on my phone for a long time and then, like the supermarket man he is, started with the meat.
After closing, I wrote the bottle's name on the sixth page of my new notebook. In the date line I wrote Father's date; in the scent line, what I smelled tonight. I wasn't at that table that night, but now I know how the bottle smells. What I learned today: even a memory left without a scent can be filled in later with a single glass.
What this wine is
Clos du Val began with a couple's commission. John and Henrietta Goelet, whose family was tied to the old Bordeaux wine merchants Barton & Guestier, wanted to found a winery outside the closed world of the French wine trade. In 1970 they hired Bernard Portet, a young winemaker who grew up in Bordeaux — his father was technical director at Château Lafite. The brief was simple: find the best place in the world to make Cabernet Sauvignon. After travelling several countries, Portet chose a site on the east side of Napa Valley, in what is now the Stags Leap District, and made the first vintage in 1972.
The three women embracing at the centre of the label are the Three Graces — a drawing modelled on a sculpture of them, said to have appeared on every label since that first vintage. And that first vintage, the 1972 Cabernet, is the very wine that went to the Judgment of Paris (the full story is in my note on the same house's Clos du Val Pinot Noir 2016).
The 2019 is built on Cabernet Sauvignon with small amounts of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec (the percentages aren't published). After winter rain it was a mild year with only a few heat spikes, and the grapes were picked slowly between 27 September and 28 October. Sixteen months in French oak (44% new), bottled in March 2021, 14.4% alcohol.
What the world says
The critic scores quoted on wine.com: James Suckling 93 ("Polished and smooth"), Wine Enthusiast 92, Wine Spectator 92 ("Sleek, polished style"), Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 91. The producer says it cut back the oak ageing in this vintage to keep the freshness and acidity, and pitches it as a wine for casual outdoor meals.
On Vivino this vintage averages 4.2 from 410 ratings; the label as a whole averages 4.1 from 18,432. The most-mentioned aromas are the oak group — oak, vanilla, tobacco, chocolate, cedar (1,517 mentions) — followed by black fruit such as blackberry, plum and cassis (1,296) and leather, earth and smoke (740). Structure: intensity 4.7/5, so it's powerful; tannin and acidity both 3.4, mid-range; sweetness 1.6. Suggested drinking window 2024–2034.
The first food the Vivino community lists is beef.
"Blackberry, plum, vanilla, cherry. Velvet tannins. Lovely body. Can be a bit heavy on the palette but nice with a steak." — Vivino review, Oct 2025, 4.3
How I drank it
6 February 2023, 5.0. This bottle isn't in my Vivino ratings. The only thing I logged on Vivino that day was the wine I drank alongside it, Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay 2021, at 4.0.
When I went to Atlanta, I bought three bottles at the supermarket: the Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay 2021, Meiomi Pinot Noir 2021, and this Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon 2019. That day I bought American beef, had a barbecue in the backyard and drank them with it. They were really delicious. I still remember the American moonlight, and the mood was just wonderful.
I didn't write down anything about how it tasted. What's left is the date, five stars and the memory of that night. In numbers: of the 410 people who rated this vintage on Vivino, 20 (about 5%) gave it a 5, and the critics sit at 91–93. My 5.0 stands with that small group. I gave the same house's Pinot Noir 2016 a 4.0, and Kendall-Jackson's Chardonnay got 3.0 from me in the 2014 vintage and 4.0 for the 2021 that night.
Where this wine shows up
The three women at the centre of the Clos du Val label are a drawing modelled on a sculpture of the Three Graces from Greek myth, said to have appeared on every label since the first vintage. The recent redesign redrew them closer to the original sculpture.
The Napa Wine Project — Clos du Val · Packaging of the World — Clos du Val (CF Napa Brand Design)
Clos du Val's first vintage, the 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon, represented California at Steven Spurrier's 1976 blind tasting in Paris and placed 8th among the reds. Ten years later, at the French Culinary Institute's 1986 rematch, the same 1972 Cabernet took first place.
Wikipedia — Judgment of Paris (wine) · Boutinot — The Judgment of Paris at 50: How Clos du Val Proved Napa's Cabernet Could Rule the World
Artwork and stills are not reproduced for copyright reasons; scenes are summarised.
Vivino community data
2019 vintage rating distribution (410 ratings, average 4.2)
| 5★ | 20 (5%) | |
| 4★ | 335 (82%) | |
| 3★ | 51 (12%) | |
| 2★ | 1 (0%) | |
| 1★ | 3 (1%) |
Most-mentioned aromas
| Family | Mentions | Top keywords |
|---|---|---|
| Oak | 1517 | oak 483 · vanilla 297 · tobacco 190 · chocolate 162 · cedar 92 |
| Black fruit | 1296 | blackberry 331 · dark fruit 205 · plum 186 · black fruit 118 · cassis 116 |
| Earth & leather | 740 | leather 282 · earthy 147 · smoke 89 · cocoa 48 · mushroom 38 |
| Red fruit | 371 | cherry 175 · raspberry 60 · red fruit 57 · strawberry 25 · cranberry 21 |
| Spice | 345 | pepper 136 · licorice 49 · cinnamon 40 · mint 24 · eucalyptus 17 |
Structure: Acidity 3.4/5 · Intensity 4.7/5 · Tannin 3.4/5 · Sweetness 1.6/5
Average by vintage (all vintages: 18432 ratings, average 4.1)
| Vintage | Average | Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | 3.8 | 34 |
| 1984 | 4.2 | 31 |
| 1985 | 4.2 | 37 |
| 1992 | 4.4 | 49 |
| 1993 | 4 | 84 |
| 1994 | 4 | 33 |
| 1995 | 4.3 | 128 |
| 1996 | 4.3 | 127 |
| 1997 | 4.2 | 50 |
| 1998 | 4.1 | 38 |
| 1999 | 4.1 | 31 |
| 2000 | 4.2 | 57 |
| 2001 | 4.3 | 46 |
| 2002 | 4 | 53 |
| 2003 | 4.1 | 49 |
| 2004 | 4 | 80 |
| 2005 | 4 | 107 |
| 2006 | 3.9 | 176 |
| 2007 | 4.1 | 230 |
| 2008 | 3.9 | 218 |
| 2009 | 3.9 | 646 |
| 2010 | 3.8 | 1179 |
| 2011 | 3.8 | 1540 |
| 2012 | 3.9 | 1527 |
| 2013 | 4 | 2123 |
| 2014 | 4.1 | 2874 |
| 2015 | 4.3 | 1731 |
| 2016 | 4.2 | 1033 |
| 2017 | 4.2 | 565 |
| 2018 | 4.1 | 382 |
| 2019 | 4.2 | 410 |
| 2021 | 4.2 | 522 |
| 2022 | 4.1 | 173 |
| 2023 | 4.2 | 37 |
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→Frequently asked questions
What kind of wine is Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon 2019?
The Napa Valley Cabernet from Clos du Val, founded in the Stags Leap District in 1972. Mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with small amounts of four other Bordeaux varieties, aged 16 months in French oak (44% new). 14.4% alcohol, critics 91–93, Vivino 4.2 for this vintage (410 ratings).
How much does it cost?
Wine-Searcher's world average is US$57 per 750ml (ex-tax, Sep 2026). Overseas retail turned up only half bottles (375ml) at two stores in Washington, DC, at US$24.99 and US$26.99. It sits well below the same house's Stags Leap District Cabernet (US$99) and Reserve Cabernet (US$192) — this is the entry-level bottling.
What food goes with it?
The Vivino community suggests beef, lamb, poultry, game such as venison, and mature hard cheese. The producer pitches it for casual outdoor meals. I drank it with American beef at a backyard barbecue.
Who are the three women on the label?
The Three Graces of Greek myth. The drawing is modelled on a sculpture of them and is said to have been on every Clos du Val label since the first vintage; the recent label redesign redrew it closer to the original sculpture.
Links & sources
View on Vivino · Prices on Wine-Searcher
- Vivino — wine page and community data
- Clos du Val — 2019 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon tech sheet
- wine.com — Clos du Val Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
- Clos du Val — Our Story
- Clos du Val — Dig Deeper (Une Histoire D'amour)
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