2015 Hook & Ladder Cabernet Sauvignon Los Amigos Ranch Estate Chalk Hill 750 ml

Cecil De Loach may be a California winemaking legend, but on Wine Access, he’s a newly-minted star. Our first offers from his Hook & Ladder winery were prompt sellouts, and the Sonoma icon’s reds, including this 2015, wasted no time racking up more than 100 four- and five-star ratings, garnering a growing chorus of member reviews like: “Fantastic wine and a great value! I want more!!!”

Today, we’re back with Hook & Ladder’s phenomenal 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Los Amigos Ranch, which hails from Sonoma County’s prestigious Chalk Hill appellation. Leave it to one of the fathers of Russian River Valley to parlay precious Chalk Hill grapes—Verité has a vineyard there, and Chalk Hill Winery and Arnot-Roberts call the area home—into one of the greatest Cabernet values we’ve ever tasted from the AVA’s volcanic soils.

Pouring an attractively dark ruby-purple, the Hook & Ladder bursts with blackberries, black currant, and blueberries, intertwined with vanilla, toast, and fresh-herb complexity. With a ripe fruit palate of black cherry and pomegranate accented by toasted oak and structured by fine, tightly packed tannins, it’s got the length, energy, and structure of a red that costs at least double—what you’d normally expect to pay for a Cabernet from the renowned Chalk Hill AVA.

Cecil De Loach founded the seminal De Loach Vineyards in 1970, and the Sonoma legend’s post-retirement vocation is making ultra-affordable wine in the Russian River Valley under his Hook & Ladder label. 

De Loach’s Los Amigos Ranch is located in the Chalk Hill AVA, in the northeast corner of the Russian River region that he made famous. While the larger Russian River Valley is renowned for the Burgundian varieties that thrive in its cool climate, Chalk Hill is a bit warmer—the perfect Sonoma County spot for the Bordeaux grapes that dominate the Los Amigos plantings. 

Factor in the higher elevation and the volcanic soils—think of the red dirt of eastern Oakville or Pritchard Hill—and you get the kind of grapes that usually go into much higher-priced wines. But because this 132-acre property next to the Robert Young vineyard and close to Ridge's East Bench Vineyard belongs to the De Loach family, the Cabernet bears a bargain price tag. 

In 2015, the dry and warm vintage led to Cabernet of perfect ripeness and flavor development. The Cabernet was aged for 18 months in a combination of European and American oak, enhancing the texture of the wine, and adding beautiful toasted complexity. This is the kind of value even we forgot was possible in a bottle with the Chalk Hill AVA on the label, and it’s one to stock by the case.