Description
TOR Wines Vine Hill Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
96-99 points — Jeb Dunnuck
‘Over the last four decades, I’ve walked almost every corner of the Napa Valley striving to understand exactly what makes a great wine. When I founded TOR Wines, the plan was simple. Our wines would come from only the best blocks in great vineyard sites I knew and revered.’
–Tor Kenward
The Vineyard: This vineyard is part of Tor’s 40-year history in the Napa Valley. He knew its early stewards, Bob and Alex Phillips, who bought the vineyard in 1959 and made it one of Napa Valley’s stars in the 80’s and 90’s. The vineyard was first planted in 1884 and is a perfect site for Bordeaux varietals. We now work with their son, Bruce Phillips, in Block 7, where we have an acre of old vine Cabernet Sauvignon and 3D, just beneath the Bond Vecina block, with just over an acre of Cabernet Sauvignon and just under an acre of Petit Verdot. Always curious, we love to co-ferment the Cabernet and Petit Verdot from this great site. In some years, “Black Magic” has been shaped in this vineyard.
The Vintage: The 2018 Vine Hill Ranch Cabernet is as it has always been a pure expression of Vine Hill Ranch. This bottling to be is a fantastic example of the old phrase ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’. This is so incredibly drinkable now but will age for years to come. The silky and seamless nature of this Cabernet hides the awesome depth and inherent structure that this has. The 2018 Vine Hill Ranch cabernet is a bit of an homage to the Cabernets of years past with its loamy/earthy profile but still has all the fruit and density that you could ever want.
