Wine Of The Year

Randy Lewis once drove race cars for a living. But when the five-time starter for the Indianapolis 500 crashed into the wall during trials for the famed race in 1991, he and his wife, Debbie, his racing team partner, decided they’d had their fill of death-defying thrills.

- James Laube

Lewis decided to become a winemaker in Napa Valley, working first for friend and fellow vintner Bob Miner at Oakville Ranch while Debbie studied the business. When Miner died in 1994, the Lewises lost the vineyard source for the first few wines they had made.

It forced the couple to seek a new path, but they have navigated it well, producing a bounty of exceptional wines over more than two decades.

The Lewises share a passion for rich, powerful New World wines, an opulent style that suits the profile of Napa Valley–grown grapes. They have a tidy division of labor, and their winery is recognized as among the region’s quality elite. Their biggest triumph comes this year, with the release of the thrilling Lewis Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2013 (95 points, $90, 1,600 cases), a hedonistic wine experience from a spectacular vintage. Claiming its place as Wine Spectator’s 2016 Wine of the Year, it becomes the second Napa Cabernet in a row to earn our top honor and the seventh since the award’s inception in 1988.

It’s a fitting achievement for this 10,000-case, family-run business. Debbie, 72, is a fifth-generation Californian who grew up farming in the Sacramento delta. Randy, 71, has been racing cars since he was a teenager in Atlanta and says the biggest difference between his racing days and those in the cellar is that he never had the best cars, but he does have the best grapes.