The 1998 Mayacamas was produced under the long tenure of Bob Travers, who purchased the estate in 1968 and helmed it for more than four decades in a manner that became one of the defining chapters in California wine history. Travers produced wines of formidable structure in a style that looked back to the Bordeaux-influenced Cabernets of the post-war era, using large redwood tanks and neutral oak barrels at a time when much of Napa Valley was pursuing a more modern idiom.

The 1998 vintage was characterised by an El Niño winter followed by a warm, dry summer and long, gradual ripening into autumn, producing a Napa season of notable concentration and freshness. At Mt. Veeder’s elevations, where volcanic soils and cool mornings slow the pace of development, 1998 delivered grapes of tight structure and genuine ageing potential. The Travers-era approach of extended ageing in large-format neutral oak was ideally suited to this kind of mountain fruit.

Old Mayacamas Cabernets from the Travers era have become among the most sought-after archival bottles in the California auction market, admired for their Bordeaux-like longevity and structural integrity. Vertical tastings of Mayacamas frequently reveal wines from the 1970s and 1980s that remain vital well beyond the cellaring horizons expected of most New World reds. A 1998 Mayacamas in magnum, properly cellared, offers an exceptionally rare opportunity to encounter this historic style at something approaching its full development.