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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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The grapes go directly to press with no sulfur added and from the press the juice is moved to tank to cold settle for 48 hours before going to barrel on its fine lees. The barrels are 5 year old french barriques, a combination of Francois Freres, Damy, and Rousseau, including one Rousseau Puncheon (500L), so they provide a neutral vessel that is not imparting flavor or tannin, but the micro-oxygenation that the wine needs to develop. The wine was gently stirred once a month during primary fermentation. Malolactic fermentation completed late winter and then was sulfured around 30ppm. The wine was racked out of barrel into tank to settle over night to be bottled the following day. 11.7% 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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James Suckling 96 points, James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com: “Sweet berry, orange peel, cedar, bark and forest flower aromas follow through to a medium to full body, with linear and fine tannins and a crunchy undertone. It’s very subtle and fresh for a 2017. Crisp and vivid. It’s refined and acid-driven. Needs three to four years more to soften. Try after 2026.” 04/23 Other 96 Points, Aubrey Frick, www.jebdunnuck.com: “The 2017 Brunello Di Montalcino is surprising in its freshness, considering the warmth of the vintage, and speaks to the cooler, northern-facing exposition of the estate. It is refined with ripe red cherry, raspberry, anise, and incense and is fresh with cherry fruit, warming spices, macchia, and herbes de Provence. It is ripe though it maintains a medium frame, with well-managed tannins and balanced acidity. It is a lovely and charming wine and is rather approachable now. Drink 2024-2040.” 03/23

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The varying and distinctive landscape of the vineyard parcels meticulously selected for our Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon offer a wine of complexity and incredible breadth. This wine possesses a lifted acidity and well-integrated raw mountain tannins that close in a persistent finish, distinct in its ability to be enjoyed at a youthful stage.

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