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While winemaker Andy Erickson and his wife Annie Favia would rebuff attempts to call them a Napa Valley power couple, their résumés speak for themselves. In addition to their own longstanding project, Favia Wines, Erickson has been the winemaker and shaped the cellar programs at some of Napa’s best-known wineries such as Screaming Eagle, Harlan Estate, Spottswoode, Dalle Valle, and To Kalon Vineyard Company, while Favia, who worked for over a decade with renowned viticulturist David Abreu, boasts a career in viticulture and vineyard management working with the likes of Newton Vineyard, Corison, Ovid, Bryant Family, Staglin, and Colgin.
And while many of those wines trade for upward of $500 a bottle—and even into the thousands—the couple’s Favia Wines has just re-launched its Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, last produced in 2013, for $150. Priced significantly lower than their own single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon releases or Cabernet Franc cuvées, which sell for between $250 and $300, their 2023 Napa Valley bottling is a Cabernet Sauvignon that’s modestly price for a wine of its provenance. Using fruit from their estate vineyard in Coombsville and a recently purchased 86-acre Oakville tract that Favia planted with 60 acres of vines, this release reunites the two AVAs and sets the direction for its future production.







