Wine & Spirits

Winemaker Notes Intense color with a slightly brick-red border. Very complex bouquet of balsamic notes with delicate wood notes. Full-bodied palate with ripe plum and sweet spices over toasted flavors. It maintains the freshness of a subtle vividness that promises excellent aging potential. Flavorsome, rich with a lingering finish.  Blend: 85% Tempranillo, 8% Garnacha Tinta, 7% GracianoJames Suckling A fragrant and complex nose of cherries, plums, roasted spices, dried black mushrooms, refined soy sauce and cigar box. Such a lovely note of umami savoriness! It’s medium-bodied with a fine grip of fine tannins. Delicate, velvety texture, but tight, with a very savory, long and layered finish. Classic Rioja Gran Reserva.

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Critic tasting note: "Deep violet-red to the eye, this wine has aromas of black cherry, blackberry preserves and a hint of mint. Fruit of the wood flavors are joined by notes of freshly ground espresso, dark chocolate and touches of eucalyptus and orange zest. Opulent tannins make their way across the palate and linger for a while."

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A delicious blend of 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon on a mixture of sand and gravel soil, much like parts of nearby Pomerol. Aged primarily in tank with a few barrel-lots thrown into the blend, this is a well balanced claret that is perfect for classic bistro fare. By far our biggest selling Bordeaux, this wine seriously overdelivers for its price! The Château de Cugat was constructed in the 1500's. Located in the small town of Blasimon, it stands upon a hill overlooking the village. The vineyards surround the Château, and are comprised of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc for red wines, and Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, and Muscadelle for white wines. Since the 2021 vintage, Château de Cugat has obtained the HVE 3 -  High Environmental Value certification.  The domaine is situated in the Entre-Deux-Mers, which is an appellation designated for strictly white wines; the red wines of the region are entitled to the appellation Bordeaux Contrôlée. If their yield is below a certain point and their alcohol level half a degree higher (12.5%), they are entitled to the appellation Bordeaux Supérieur Contrôlée. 

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This wine, the domaine's classic, is 80% Malbec and 20% Merlot. Grapes are destemmed and fermented in stainless steel tanks, then the wine is aged in these same stainless steel tanks. It then spends 18 months in demi-muid barrels and is very lightly filtered before being bottled. Deep ruby-colored. Powerful, forthcoming and concentrated nose, with good depth of blackberry-scented fruit along with anise. Light tannins are well integrated in the wine's medium-to-full bodied texture.

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“17 by Pinea”, honors the year 2017, an important year in the life of the Pinea winery when they celebrated the commercial debut of our flagship PINEA. The ‘mountain’ character of their Estate's fruit derives from privileged location (approx. 3,000+ ft. above sea level) where vines 30, 40 and 70+ years of age overcome daunting weather conditions, from snowy winters to sizzling hot summers, with common 40-degree diurnal-nocturnal temperature fluctuations. The lifted, complex aromatics of “17” are the result of passionate viticulture following sustainable and organic practices. Then careful grape selection (hand-harvested) and a non-interventionist approach to vinification allows the fruit to be the star. After patient aging for 20 months in French oak barrels, Pinea's privileged Terroir and attention to detail followed in every step of the wine-making process, result in one of the very best expressions of the Tempranillo varietal

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98 points Jeb Dunnuck"Showing brilliantly, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon VHR is a thrilling, magical Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that offers a sensational bouquet of pure crème de cassis, graphite, white flowers, spring flowers, and subtle smoke and crushed stone. As with most 2018s, in has a dense purple color, full-bodied richness, building yet ripe, polished tannins, and a great finish. Certainly no dainty wine, it’s one of those powerful yet perfectly balanced Cabernet Sauvignons that has the fruit and texture to drink well even today yet will have 30 or 40, if not 50 years of longevity." 98 points Vinous"**Francoise Pechon - Vinous Winemaker of the Year 2021** The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon has filled out beautifully since I tasted it a year ago. Rich, sumptuous and enveloping, the 2018 captivates all the senses with its sensual personality. All the Vine Hill Ranch signatures come through so beautifully. The 2018 possesses tremendous intensity as it continues to open in the glass, revealing myriad shades of nuance. Black cherry, lavender, spice and chocolate all flesh out on a wine that balances the sumptuousness of the 2012 with some of the energy of the 2013."

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Winemaker Notes Lillian is not particularly Syrah-like. It doesn’t scream out the usual cocktail of blackberries, bacon fat, and lavender. It always feels a bit more about the people and the places than the varietal. The wines are lavish, but there is refined rocky quality in them that defies description. The 2013 vintage is no exception to this but it is a vintage that emphasizes the lace-like structure and perfume of the wine. Compared to recent vintages; the fruit is more intense than in 2011 and the tannins a bit more architectural. It has less of 2012’s salinity and has quite a bit more tension and energy. Critical Acclaim James Suckling This has an intense, smoky and meaty nose, together with aromas of charred herbs, blackberries, black cherries, spice box, earth, burnt orange and fresh leather. It’s full-bodied, rich and flavorful with firm, chewy tannins. Deliciously inky with a deep core of spiced, peppered black fruit. Intense and long. Drink or hold.

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Winemaker Notes The 2018 vintage was one of exceptional quality for Heitz Cellar. The cooler to moderate temperatures during the growing season allowed us to balance sugar and phenolic maturity in the fruit while maintaining natural acidity to help preserve the fresh characteristics of the vintage. The elegance and balanced structure of the 2018 vintage will make this an incredible wine to drink upon release and will continue to reward with cellar aging. Critical Acclaim James Suckling A pure, balanced and fresh Napa cabernet that is not just showing heady concentration and dark fruit. Here you get some violets, nimble flowers, redcurrants, graphite and fine spices. Some oranges, too. Fragrant and nuanced. Medium to full body with tight yet refined tannins. Rather linear, tense and elegant, but lacking neither power nor definition. Better to give it a few years to deliver more complexity.

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Deep ruby red colour. Pronounced nose with dark plum, blackberry, tobacco, sweet spices, leather and black pepper. Pronounced taste of dark plum, blackberry, tobacco, sweet spices, leather, cedar and black pepper. Long and dry finish. High acidity. High tannins. Medium body. An outstanding St. Emilion that has great potential for development going forward. Needs at least five more years. Goes well with beef or lamb. --William

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Winemaker Notes The 2019 “Cariad” bears a soulful mark of the land, with the polish and esteem of pristine fruit. A bevy of dark fruit flavors like blackberry, cherry, and black currant are woven together with generous notes of earth and spice. Commanding aromatics make way to reveal a wine loaded with the succulence of a tender cut of meat. Finely polished tannins melt across the palate as dark chocolate and herbal notes of mint build into the finish. Both classic and modern, the 2019 “Cariad” is a poignant example of the charm of this sophisticated vintage. Critical Acclaim Jeb Dunnuck One of the two perfect wines in the lineup, the 2019 Cariad is 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Cabernet Franc, and the rest Petit Verdot and Merlot, all from David Abreu’s Madrona Ranch Vineyard. Brought up in two-thirds new French oak, it has a regal, noble, full-bodied style that carries incredible tannins and balance, as well as off-the-charts purity in its floral, chocolate, lead pencil, and assorted red, blue, and black fruits. The tannins’ quality is truly something, and it’s rare to find a wine offering this level of purity, balance, and intensity at the same time. As with most 2019s, it already offers ample pleasure, yet smart money will give these 3-4 years, and it’s capable of evolving for 30 to 40 years.

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Picking commences at 4am, when we meet the team in the vineyard and ride with the bins behind the tractor as the pickers dump 5 gallon buckets into the Macro Bins, which we then sort, looking to discard any subpar clusters. Fruit comes into the winery, gets further sorted and then we make final determination on what percentage of whole-cluster we’ll use. Whole-clusters then go into the 1.5 ton open-top bin and the remaining fruit is de-stemmed and placed on top of the whole clusters. The wine is punched down twice a day, once first thing in the morning and once at night. Primary fermentation finished in around two weeks, at which point the wine was racked off the skins to 3 Stockinger 600L puncheons and 3 barriques without any sulfur added. The skins were pressed gently and the juice was then moved to barrel on its fine lees. Malolactic fermentation finished mid-late winter and the wines were lightly sulfured and put to bed until bottling in mid June. 12.6% abv.

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Winemaker Notes Red garnet in color. Intense and fine aromas of fresh red fruit. The palate presents good freshness, excellent structure and fine, velvety tannins. Critical Acclaim James Suckling Lovely aromas of strawberries, plums, and berries. Bark and mushrooms. Complex and aromatic. Medium to full body with super fine tannins that are supple and gorgeous. Lovely length. So attractive now. Leave it for four or five years. Better after 2027.

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