2019 Baker & Hamilton Vine Hill Ranch Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville, California (750ml) GLWS

WINEMAKER’S NOTES:

A truly remarkable vintage from the Napa Valley, 2019 provided ideal growing conditions for the cultivation of premium Cabernet Sauvignon. Recognized for the season’s temperate warm weather and cool nights, and absent severe heat spells, the resulting wines are noted for their richness, depth, and complexity. Having received normal precipitation within a gradually warming growing season marked by light spring rains, the season delivered a relatively light crop of exceptional quality, noted for smaller berries and heightened skin-to-juice ratios. The late season, so critical to the maturation of the crop, delivered mild temperatures and cool evenings, resulting in a vintage remarkable for its breadth, structure, and vibrant fruit character.

TASTING NOTES:

This is packed with vivid boysenberry, mulberry and black currant fruit that bursts forth with energy, while being held in check by graphite, anise and apple wood notes that lend good underlying tension. Features bramble and warm stone accents on the finish, as the fruit races through. Best from 2023 through 2038.

Wine Spectator, 95 pts.

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is a new wine made by the Phillips family, owners of Vine Hill Ranch, and winemaker Francoise Peschon. It is without question one of the most impressive debuts I tasted this year. Silky and gracious, the 2019 is a wonderfully understated, classy Cabernet that shows the more restrained side of the year in its super-classic mid-weight feel. Cedar, tobacco and sweet floral notes add gorgeous inner perfume. With the Baker & Hamilton Cabernet, the Phillipses aim to make a wine that will work well in restaurants and retail shops, so all of the wine is sold through distribution rather than direct. You don’t have to have a Nobel Prize to figure out what the vineyard source is. Let’s leave it at that.

– Antonio Galloni, 93 pts.