(Forbes) - When you work for a wine company whose owners believe that land is the key to prosperity, you have a good sense of your place in the world.

For Chris Carpenter, that place is on the mountain.

Carpenter’s winemaking expertise lies in Cabernet Sauvignon. Specifically, it lies in Cab from Napa. More specifically still, it lies in Cab grown on mountainsides ranging from 1000 to 2100 feet high.

He’s earned a following, especially among collectors, for how he manages the variables of a demanding environment and then finesses them into intense expressions of the grape, with more structure, depth and, especially important for collectors, ageability.

Carpenter makes wine for Jackson Family Wines from four different mountain AVAs in Napa: Mount Veeder (home of the Mt. Brave label), Howell Mountain (source of the La Jota wines), Spring Mountain, and Diamond Mountain. The Lokoya and Cardinale labels blend grapes from vineyards in all four AVAs. The wines range in price from roughly $70 to more than $200.

“A lot of our collectors are people who have wine knowledge, who have done enough background work to understand the differences between mountain fruit and valley floor fruit,” he said. “Collectors know the wines will prove themselves when they lay them down. Tannins modify, acidity changes, yet the fruit will preserve even 20 years down the line.”

Whether you can taste the difference between mountain and valley floor fruit is a question of experience and palate, but you’d know the difference between the two for sure if you compare financial and operational data.