2016 Hill Family Estate Origin Red Blend Napa Valley 750 ml

The 2016 Hill Family Origin comes from some of the most prized sites of a grape-growing icon and one of Napa’s greatest years, making for a wine that delivers incredible power and complexity for the dollar—especially at our price.

Doug Hill is one of the legends of Napa, yet his name barely registers outside the tightly-cloistered world of the local wine industry. He’s one of the most in-demand, successful vineyard managers out there, growing grapes for names like Far Niente, Ramey, and Duckhorn—but his heart and soul belong to the winery he runs with his children, Hill Family Estates.

They make an array of powerful reds with the help of 100-point winemaker Jean Hoefliger, including the standout Bordeaux-inspired blend, Origin. Because of our longstanding friendship with the family we have an outrageous deal on the 2016.

When Doug’s son, Ryan, passed along a bottle and mentioned that he might be able to work something special out, we knew we had a Wine Access member-favorite candidate on the docket. After all, 2016 earned the highest-ever score for California Cabernet on Wine Advocate’s vintage chart and the highest score since 1999 from Wine Spectator—but we couldn’t call him back fast enough once we tasted the wine.

Dark purple and bursting with aromas of succulently ripe blackberries, plum jam and a hint of mint, the palate follows through with a mouth-filling texture and bold flavors of dark fruits, bittersweet cacao, cedar, and baking spice. It tastes like it should command a hefty premium over the winery’s $52 price—to say nothing of the value it offers at our price.

Origin is a blend of all five Bordeaux varieties, and the Hill Family’s unique status as one of the premier grape-growers in the valley means each one comes from its ideal terroir. Sumptuous Merlot and aromatic Cabernet Franc come from their hillside vineyard in Carneros, where wind and shallow soils promote thick skins and robust flavors, while their coveted Beau Terre vineyard in Oak Knoll contributes the powerful Cabernet Sauvignon that provides the backbone of the blend. Malbec and Petit Verdot add color and texture, making for a harmonious wine that’s more than the sum of its parts.

Like most great insider Napa secrets, this isn’t bound to stay that way for long. It’s hard to think of anything we’d look for in a $50 red that this doesn’t have—for a far lower price. Time to stock the cellar.