Alexander Valley Vineyards, Alexander Valley (Sonoma County, California) Cabernet Sauvignon 2020

 This has been one of the most reliable Cabernets from California for a solid three decades, and the fact that it can hold its own with the 2021s now on the market (which it certainly can) is quite impressive.  Among its virtues is that there isn’t too much of anything — ripeness, density, oak, tannin — and yet there’s plenty of everything that you’d want for the foods that call for Cabernet.  There’s a little streak of red fruit among the usual black fruit suspects, making for added complexity.  This is a bargain, and a very notable accomplishment from a challenged growing season.