“They’re brighter and fresher, with better acidity and not as dense,” said Patrick, who has an excellent selection of older Napa cabernets at Pearl & Ash. Florence found them to be “pleasant, even elegant.”

Paul has a few older Napa cabernets on his list at Hearth, and even a cult cabernet or two. But he was not so enthralled with our tasting.

“I like wine to tell a story,” he said. “These got no further than, ‘I am Sam, Sam I am.’ ”

Certainly, the weather forced many winemakers to tell a different story from the usual narrative of richness and impact. Instead of protecting their grape vines from the heat, they had to chase the warmth in an effort to get the grapes ripe enough for harvest. For many, the vintage was a knotty problem. If the success of the Napa Valley brand is tied to exuberant ripeness, what do you do when nature hands you something else?

The bottles we rejected were unable to find a satisfactory solution. Too many wines seemed disjointed, as if they were both underripe and overripe. We found odd combinations: tart yet sweet and oaky, tannic yet unstructured, herbal yet hot with alcohol. Luckily, we found more that we liked, beginning with our top bottle, the rich, dense yet beautifully balanced Grassi. Even Paul approved.

Close behind were a group of wines, beginning with Vineyard 29’s angular yet harmonious 2011 Cru. At $50, Cru is the budget entry among Vineyard 29’s several Napa cabernets. By contrast, the lively, complex Rivers-Marie and the tannic but nuanced Plumpjack Estate were the most expensive bottles in our tasting, just squeaking in under the cap at $90 and $99, respectively.

At the tail end of this group were two more moderately priced bottles, the earthy, spicy Chappellet Signature at $45 and the fresh, structured ZD, which was our best value at $40.

All told, 10 of the 20 bottles in our tasting were $37 to $50, yet seven of our favorites came from this group, while only three of the seven bottles costing $73 to $99 made our top 10. Too often, the more expensive the bottle, the more sweet oak is lavished on the wine, which, as they say, is fine for those who like that sort of thing.