2018 TOR Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Napa Valley 750 ml

Tor Kenward is one of the most revered cult Cabernet maestros in California, working only with sought-after Napa Valley terroirs like To Kalon, Vine Hill Ranch, and Melanson. But no site shines brighter in his (and winemaker Jeff Ames’) hands than the Tierra Roja Vineyard in eastern Oakville. 

TOR’s vineyard-designate Tierra Roja Cabernet is always one of their most coveted bottlings, and in the gorgeous 2018 vintage, the bountiful harvest presented Tor and Jeff with an unprecedented opportunity: to make a Cabernet that would showcase the same stellar terroir, but feature a redder, juicier fruit profile than the traditional Tierra Roja Cab. The result is the 2018 TOR Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville, a wine whose delicious and deeply impressive character earned stunning 96-point scores from both James Suckling and the International Wine Report. 

Those critical endorsements elevated this first-time bottling into the stratosphere occupied by the TOR collector’s pieces that always fetch well into triple digits. And today, we’ve got this secret single-vineyard masterpiece, crafted from an inimitable terroir by two of the top names in Napa Cabernet for a song.

“Drive the Oakville Cross Road to the Silverado Trail then look directly forward and up and you see Tierra Roja,” Tor explained to us, about one of the prime places in the Napa Valley to grow classically structured, perfumed Cabernet Sauvignon. “We have great neighbors—Backus, Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, and Rudd. The vineyard is dotted with big rocks, and the soil is definitely roja. You might expect the wines to be massive, but they are very perfumed, dark, and complex,” he said, likening their style to the early, red-fruit-driven Cabernets of Screaming Eagle. 

TOR’s 2018 Oakville Cabernet is pure power administered with stylish grace, showing complex aromas of red, black, blue fruit, accompanied by toast, espresso, dried violet, and clove. Bold and full-bodied, it’s got elegance and energy, a beautiful balance of super-fine tannins and fresh acidic lift, and after 20 months in new Taransaud and Darnajou barrels, a long finish that lingers on toasted oak, mocha, and earth. 

No one knows proprietor Linda Neal’s Tierra Roja Vineyard like Tor and Jeff—that’s because they’re the only two winemakers with the honor of working with Tierra Roja grapes. It took Tor years of knocking on Neal’s door to get access to this incredible Cabernet, and today he holds the lone contract. The only other place this coveted Cabernet ends up is in Jeff's famed Rudius wines, most notably his Wine Access member-favorite Kaley Elizabeth bottling. 

Neal’s four acres of meticulously farmed, red and rocky volcanic soil are suited to Cabernet Sauvignon, and this first-time bottling from TOR shows it off beautifully. A bottle that will have stratospheric prices swirling in your head, it’s a rare chance to taste the work of Jeff Ames and Tor Kenward.