2019 Baker & Hamilton Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville Napa Valley 750 ml

BV Georges de Latour. BOND. Colgin. TOR.

The 2019 Baker & Hamilton Cabernet comes from the absolute apex of Oakville’s hierarchy, a vineyard source for some of the Valley’s most iconic wineries. It’s called Vine Hill Ranch, and it’s responsible for countless 100–point wines.

Since 2008, Vine Hill Ranch owner Bruce Phillips has made his own wine from this site, and it has become a tightly-allocated collector’s item, fetching $280 and up. But in 2019—tired of saying NO to endless inquiries—he decided to introduce a new wine exclusively from Vine Hill Ranch: Baker & Hamilton Cabernet Sauvignon.

Farmed by Michael Wolf of Scarecrow fame, made by the 2019 San Francisco Chronicle Winemaker of the Year Françoise Peschon, and boasting 95 points from Wine Spectator, it’s a wine Antonio Galloni of Vinous called “without question one of the most impressive debuts I tasted this year.”  

Vine Hill Ranch’s modern era began in 1959, when Bruce Phillips’s grandfather Bruce Kelham purchased this benchland property at the southern tip of Oakville. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, all of the Cabernet went into André Tchelistcheff’s legendary Georges de Latour masterpieces. In the mid-80s, phylloxera struck the vineyard, and the Phillips family undertook a rigorous replanting regime. Those moves continue to yield dividends today.

This wine possesses all of the drama and complexity that has made this vineyard famous. We love how its enticing aromas of lush red fruit, dark spice, Darjeeling tea, and Madagascar vanilla draw you in, and the focus, tension, and silky tannins that weave together on its broad and layered palate. It's a tour de force.