On Q, Tempo, 2022

There's a running joke in my house that I'm incapable of leaving a winery without buying something I had absolutely no room for. Steve Brady's cellar in Coombsville nearly finished me off entirely. We'd gone out to California for something else entirely, stumbled onto On Q almost by accident, opened the TEMPO and that was three hours gone and a very awkward conversation with the shipping company. ​ ON Q was founded in 2010 by Steve Brady, a Napa native and trumpet obsessive who named his label after the conductor's cue — that electric split-second before everything begins. His secret weapon is winemaker Julien Fayard, whose history reads like a Michelin guide to the world's greatest estates: Château Lafite Rothschild, Quintessa, Dalla Valle. The TEMPO draws on Sonoma County's finest small-batch fruit and Fayard handles it with the kind of quiet, effortless authority that only comes from two decades at the very top. ​ Dark, brooding, and impossibly smooth — black cherry colliding with warm cedar, rich plum, and a finish that simply refuses to leave. This is Sonoma Cabernet with the volume turned all the way up. ​ **JUST ORDER IT ALREADY**