2023 KHK Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

One of the darkest and most intensely colored vintages in nearly a decade. From a purely visual perspective, this wine is a blockbuster-sure to capture the attention of both critics and consumers.
Upon opening, the wine is boisterous and exuberant, eager to breathe. After a few deep breaths, it reveals its depth and complexity. Perfectly balanced between the roasted coffee and dark chocolate notes of the oak and the ripe, black mountain fruit, a delicate earthiness weaves gracefully between the two.
Hints of dark purple, iris, and lilac flowers appear at the rim of the glass.
Texturally, the wine is a master class in balance. The tannins are extremely fine-grained and supple, yet firmly present. Across the palate, the texture evokes the sensation of slipping into a luxury bathrobe: soft, pillowy, and satiny. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon,14.9% alc. Aged 20 months in 80% new French oak (Darnajou and Taransaud cooperages). 1,638 cases produced. Winemaker: Thomas Rivers Brown

Launched in 2021 as a wine only for high end restaurants – now available to select retailers due to the overwhelming success. They made just 100 cases in 2021 and has now grown to a little over 1500! The 2023 is the first time anyone beyond restaurants has access to it.

“The fact is, Napa Valley wine is expensive to make, but what KHK have imagined with their terroir, lifetime experiences and feet-firmly-rooted-in-reality philosophy is, for me, a rare opportunity to make an extremely high-quality, classic Napa Cab that is absolutely within reach. I’m thrilled to be creating it with them.” – Thomas Rivers Brown, Winemaker

Vineyard: Farmed by the Bettinelli family in Yountville, the source of very acclaimed wines and 100-point reviews, that cannot be revealed legally…

Friendships inspire a lot of things: dinners, deep conversations, weekend trips. But when your best friends are world-class restaurateurs, they also inspire extraordinary wine. Jim Keller met Tommy and Billy Hall at six years old, and they’ve been like brothers ever since-even as the success of Halls Chophouse took them across the country. And when he crossed paths with celebrated chef Thomas Keller in the early 2000s, he knew he’d found another kindred spirit.

Over two decades, that quartet bonded so much over a mutual love of food, wine, golf, and business, they purchased a vineyard together (the Trubody Ranch in 2026)—a site in Yountville that has yielded multiple 100-point wines. So in 2021, Jim set out to make a wine worthy of his friends’ restaurants. Drawing upon the group’s collective culinary expertise, superb Napa Valley terroir, and the winemaking acumen of Thomas Rivers Brown, he came away with wines that wouldn’t just hold their own beside luxurious cuisine. They’d elevate it.

That’s KHK, elevated wines made exclusively for exceptional restaurants- with all the character, purity, and complexity of a lifelong friendship.

Do you know how good a PERFECT latte tastes the first time?
How about that early-morning aromatic-just-picked blackberry breeze from the Yountville farmers market at 8am? That mouth-wateringly, heady, olfactory-piquing black truffle being shaved at your table?
Roll this headiness up and infuse it with a line of zesty acidity (the ’23 has a wonderful tangy-berry attack). Wait an hour or two (while sipping it of course) and let it unfurl with Indian coffee spices, boysenberry compote and cream, then pick up that red-flowers-on-the-wind note that started you off in the first place. 20 months in 80% new Darnajou and Taransaud barrels keeps it all tightly knit, with a kickass savoriness and an overall completeness that goes far beyond its very comfortable price. How do we do it? We do it because it’s our mission (and Thomas Brown is a master). Heady, accessible 100% Cabernet for all! Drink up! But stash a few, too, it will only get better for the next 4-7 years at least