diff --git a/commands/build.go b/commands/build.go
index fdfc1b39..2861820c 100644
--- a/commands/build.go
+++ b/commands/build.go
@@ -27,11 +27,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/moby/buildkit/session/auth/authprovider"
 	"github.com/moby/buildkit/solver/errdefs"
 	"github.com/moby/buildkit/util/appcontext"
+	"github.com/moby/buildkit/util/grpcerrors"
 	"github.com/morikuni/aec"
 	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 	"github.com/spf13/pflag"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/codes"
 )
 
 const defaultTargetName = "default"
@@ -217,6 +219,7 @@ func runBuild(dockerCli command.Cli, in buildOptions) (err error) {
 	}
 
 	imageID, err := buildTargets(ctx, dockerCli, map[string]build.Options{defaultTargetName: opts}, in.progress, contextPathHash, in.builder, in.metadataFile)
+	err = wrapBuildError(err)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -492,3 +495,29 @@ func parseContextNames(values []string) (map[string]string, error) {
 	}
 	return result, nil
 }
+
+func wrapBuildError(err error) error {
+	if err == nil {
+		return nil
+	}
+	st, ok := grpcerrors.AsGRPCStatus(err)
+	if ok {
+		if st.Code() == codes.Unimplemented && strings.Contains(st.Message(), "unsupported frontend capability moby.buildkit.frontend.contexts") {
+			return &wrapped{err, "current frontend does not support --build-context. Named contexts are supported since Dockerfile v1.4"}
+		}
+	}
+	return err
+}
+
+type wrapped struct {
+	err error
+	msg string
+}
+
+func (w *wrapped) Error() string {
+	return w.msg
+}
+
+func (w *wrapped) Unwrap() error {
+	return w.err
+}
diff --git a/go.mod b/go.mod
index c2699bfd..611f3acf 100644
--- a/go.mod
+++ b/go.mod
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ require (
 	go.opentelemetry.io/otel v1.2.0
 	go.opentelemetry.io/otel/trace v1.2.0
 	golang.org/x/sync v0.0.0-20210220032951-036812b2e83c
+	google.golang.org/grpc v1.42.0
 	gopkg.in/dancannon/gorethink.v3 v3.0.5 // indirect
 	gopkg.in/fatih/pool.v2 v2.0.0 // indirect
 	gopkg.in/gorethink/gorethink.v3 v3.0.5 // indirect
diff --git a/vendor/modules.txt b/vendor/modules.txt
index 360b2221..7d0ca6ef 100644
--- a/vendor/modules.txt
+++ b/vendor/modules.txt
@@ -564,6 +564,7 @@ google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/rpc/errdetails
 google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/rpc/status
 google.golang.org/genproto/protobuf/field_mask
 # google.golang.org/grpc v1.42.0
+## explicit
 google.golang.org/grpc
 google.golang.org/grpc/attributes
 google.golang.org/grpc/backoff