🇺🇸 Beau Vigne “Romeo” Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

This is Napa Cabernet wearing a tailored suit and still starting trouble. Dark fruit, graphite swagger, and tannins that don’t ask for permission. 

Wine Description 

Beau Vigne’s “Romeo” is the kind of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that shows up loud, polished, and very sure of itself. The 2022 leans concentrated and structured, with that dark, mineral-tinged, cocoa-and-graphite energy that reads “serious bottle” without turning into a lecture.

The Signature Series “Romeo” line is made in collaboration with winemaker Julien Fayard, a French-trained Napa insider known for bringing Bordeaux discipline to California fruit. He’s worked at Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Smith Haut Lafitte, and later served as Philippe Melka’s director of winemaking before launching his own projects.

If you want a Cabernet that can flex now with air and still has the structure to play the long game, Romeo’s here, being dramatic about it. 

Vine-to-Table: Meet the Winemaker

Julien Fayard is the French-born, Napa-based winemaker behind Beau Vigne’s Signature Series “Romeo” collaboration, with early experience at Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Smith Haut Lafitte and later leadership in the Philippe Melka orbit. One detail we love because it’s oddly founder-coded: he built a reputation making other people’s wines, then expanded into his own labels and projects, including Azur rosé made with a Provence-inspired approach. 

The Vibe

Bold Napa energy, but not sloppy: dense fruit, spice, and that pencil-lead graphite thing you want when the night is doing the most. 

What it tastes like

Think dark raspberry and black-peppered licorice, plus sweet-soil depth and graphite edge, with floral lift and a molasses-dark concentration through the mid-palate. It’s tense, focused, and surprisingly drinkable now if you give it air, while still clearly built to age. 

Pairing + When to drink it 

Give it something with char and fat: ribeye, lamb, burgers that drip, or mushroom dishes that actually taste like something. Drink it when you want Napa Cab to feel like an event, and if you’re opening it young, decanting is your best wingman. 

Quick Specs

• Producer: Beau Vigne 

• Winemaker: Julien Fayard (Signature Series collaboration) 

• Region/Appellation: Napa Valley (AVA), California 

• Grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon (with Petite Verdot in the blend) 

• Vintage: 2022 

• Winemaking/Aging: Oak-aged

• ABV: 15.4% 

• Bottle size: 750ml 

Critic Reviews

• Meridith May, The Tasting Panel — 95 points — Reviewed vintage: 2022 — (date shown on review page: July 1, 2025)
  Short excerpt: “Concentrated… bold tannins… sweet soil and graphite… dark raspberry… blue floral tones…”

FAQs 

Q: Why is Beau Vigne calling this wine “Romeo”, and what’s the Shakespeare tie-in?
A: Beau Vigne’s Signature Series leans into Shakespeare with “Romeo” and “Juliet”, and the winery itself frames “Juliet” explicitly as a nod to the tragic heroine. “Romeo” is the companion Cabernet in that same storytelling lane. 

Q: Was Beau Vigne “Romeo” always made with Julien Fayard, or did that start later?
A: The “Romeo” Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is presented as the debut of Beau Vigne’s Signature Series, made in collaboration with “renowned winemaker Julien Fayard.” That collaboration is positioned as a defining part of the Signature Series identity.

Q: What’s one concrete career credential that explains why Julien Fayard matters here?
A: Fayard is documented as having worked at Château Lafite Rothschild and Château Smith Haut Lafitte before relocating to Napa, and he later worked with Philippe Melka (including as director of winemaking) before launching his own projects. That’s basically the résumé of someone who doesn’t guess, he executes. 

Q: What’s the actual alcohol level on Beau Vigne Romeo 2022, and what’s in the blend?
A: “Romeo” shows 15.4% ABV and notes Cabernet Sauvignon with Petite Verdot, specifying a 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petite Verdot blend.

Q: Where does Beau Vigne source fruit for the Romeo concept, at least historically?
A: In the winery’s notes for the 2018 “Romeo” release, Beau Vigne says the wine had access to top vineyard sites in Rutherford, Oakville, and St. Helena AVAs, assembled from small blocks to capture a Napa Valley expression.