Call me a cab (and while you're at it, a merlot).

For an upcoming Food section story on two well-established Napa winemakers with reputations as contrarians, we spent some time Sunday afternoon comparing their wines to the mainstream competition.

The bottles shown at left hover around the $60 mark, on average - too pricey for everyday drinking, but more or less mid-range for serious cabernet sauvignon and Bordeaux-style blends from this elite region.

The tasting was part of the background reporting done for the story. We also looked at how influential critics have scored their wines over the years.

The results of our tasting were eye-opening, and confirmed for us that these are two guys marching to drum beats all their own.

The difference is in the glass.