Winemaker Notes
This is everyone’s Cabernet Sauvignon of the vintage, and a wine that may well go down in Napa Valley legend. Our first Vine Hill Ranch designate Cabernet Sauvignon, from the gravelliest soils in that great vineyard, in a typically red-fruited vintage this is all black fruit. Blackberry, boysenberry and black cherry layered with dark chocolate, briar, exotic spices and potpourri. Has the power and richness of the best Napa Cabernet with more of a classical First Growth structure. Jeff considers this perhaps the most complex and complete Cabernet Sauvignons he has ever made.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Also beautiful, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Vine Hill Ranch Oakville has a rocking level of minerality as well as powerful notes of blackcurrants, plums, dark chocolate, crushed rocks, and toasted spice. Screaming Cabernet Sauvignon both on the nose and palate, it's full-bodied, rounded, and voluptuous, with beautiful fruit, a rich, mineral-laced, powerful style, and a great finish. Unfortunately, there are only eight barrels produced.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
This comes from the most gravelly block in Vine Hill Ranch, Block 7, planted to twenty-year-old vines. The wine sees "classic TOR winemaking" - about three weeks on skins during and post-fermentation. It was matured in a mix of Taransaud and Darnajou small French oak barrels for twenty months, then bottled without fining or filtration. Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Vine Hill Ranch comes bounding out of the glass with exuberant black cherries, mulberries and boysenberries notes plus suggestions of pencil shavings, cigar box and cardamom. Medium to full bodied, the palate has an exhilarating, fantastically fine-grained texture, with seamless freshness and bags of black fruit flavors, finishing with a lively herbal lift.
Rating: 96+ -
Tasting Panel
Dark, intense cherry color; spicy, deep, and juicy with a rich texture and graceful flavors of plum, blackberry, toasty oak, and vanilla. Huge cellaring potential.
One of the most prestigious wines of the world capable of great power and grace, Napa Valley Cabernet is a leading force in the world of fine, famous, collectible red wine. Today the Napa Valley and Cabernet Sauvignon are so intrinsically linked that it is difficult to discuss one without the other. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that this marriage came to light; sudden international recognition rained upon Napa with the victory of the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
Cabernet Sauvignon undoubtedly dominates Napa Valley today, covering half of the land under vine, commanding the highest prices per ton and earning the most critical acclaim. Cabernet Sauvignon’s structure, acidity, capacity to thrive in multiple environs and ability to express nuances of vintage make it perfect for Napa Valley where incredible soil and geographical diversity are found and the climate is perfect for grape growing. Within the Napa Valley lie many smaller sub-AVAs that express specific characteristics based on situation, slope and soil—as a perfect example, Rutherford’s famous dust or Stags Leap District's tart cherry flavors.