Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles California 2023

Liberty School traces back to 1975, when Charlie Wagner, of the family that had just founded Caymus Vineyards in Rutherford, started bottling the Cabernet lots that didn't make Caymus under a second label named for the schoolhouse he'd attended as a boy. Paso Robles growers Chuck and Paul Hope began supplying the label's fruit in the late 1980s, and when the Hope family acquired it outright in 1996, Liberty School moved south to Paso Robles for good. Hope Family Wines now draws this Cabernet from more than fifty grower partners across the appellation, built mainly on the warmer, richly concentrated east side with select west-side lots folded in for lift. The 2023 is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, deep ruby in the glass, with fresh vanilla, cedar, and black currant on the nose, and a savory palate of wet leather, black pepper, and dried herb alongside black cherry and sweet oak, carried by silky, approachable tannins. Three generations into the Hope family's stewardship, it still does what a good Tuesday-night Cabernet should: show up, deliver, and never miss.