Winemaker Notes
Delicious with rosemary-seasoned ribeye, served with garlic roasted potatoes with parsnips and fennel.
Blend: 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec, 1% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This wine is bursting in lavish aromas of blueberry, black currant and fudge that lead into a palate full of mouthcoating tannins and solid acidity. Blackberry, black plum and dried herb flavors complete the picture.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Tasted as a barrel sample and a blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon with Malbec and Petit Verdot, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Hilltop offers a deep purple color as well as impressive notes of crème de cassis, licorice, lead pencil and tobacco leaf. Medium-bodied, charming, elegant and layered on the palate, with lots of fruit, it's a rock-solid Cabernet that has plenty to love.
Barrel Sample: 88-90 -
Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The J. Lohr Vineyard Series has always been one of this winery's most popular category. Wines, made from this tier, are often rich, yet smooth. The 2015 Hilltop Cabernet Sauvignon certainly shows this pedigree. TASTING NOTES: This wine is rich, smooth and beautifully crafted. Its generous ripe fruit and oak accents prime it perfectly for a grilled ribeye. (Tasted: April 9, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
For more than fifty years and through two generations, the Lohr family and their team have been leaders in the California wine industry. Founder Jerry Lohr and his three children Steve, Cynthia, and Lawrence oversee one of the country's most successful and trusted fine wine labels. With first plantings in Monterey in 1972 and then in Paso Robles in 1986, the team helped write the book on sustainable winegrowing on the Central Coast.
Today, J. Lohr farms more than 4,000 acres of estate vineyards in Monterey's Arroyo Seco and Santa Lucia Highlands appellations, Paso Robles, and St. Helena in the Napa Valley. They produce eight tiers of award-winning releases: J. Lohr Signature Cabernet Sauvignon, J. Lohr Cuvée Series, J. Lohr Vineyard Series, J. Lohr Gesture, J. Lohr Pure Paso Proprietary Red Wine, J. Lohr Estates, J. Lohr Monterey Roots, and ARIEL Vineyards.
J. Lohr is a Certified California Sustainable Vineyard and Winery and was honored with the 2020 Green Medal Leader Award in recognition of the company's decades-long commitment to sustainability.
As Paso Robles, California has soared in number of wineries and gained in popularity, Cabernet Sauvignon has firmly taken root as the region’s number one varietal. Alone, it accounts for just over 40% of plantings and is grown throughout both the western and eastern sides of the appellation. Though viticulture here dates back to the 18th century, Cabernet Sauvignon didn’t emerge as a significant grape here until the 1970’s. But since then it has definitely made up for lost time.
Legendary winemaker and consultant Andre Tchelistcheff first recognized Paso’s potential with Cabernet Sauvignon in the early 1960’s. The calcareous soil and dramatic diurnal temperature changes of Paso’s westside particularly intrigued him. Today modern winemaking techniques and focused experimentation with various clones, rootstocks and vineyard strategies optimize the region's ideal combination of soil and climate to deliver the best fruit possible.
The results are evident in the glass. Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon can be mesmerizing, with rich aromas and flavors of blackberry, cassis, black cherry, graphite, toasty oak, vanilla and spice. The structure, balance and unbridled opulence of these wines impress from first sip to last. Not surprisingly, Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignons have steadily grown in reputation, not just in the U.S., but around the world.