Community Tasting Note

• Cristal2000 Likes this wine: 96 points

  September 21, 2021 - 2018 VHR Face Off (blind), with Arrow & Branch, Mememto Mori, VHR and Tor represented. Easily the reddest fruited and lightest overall bodied, but with remarkable pixelated tannins, refinement and a building power that shows its best days are ahead. Aromas lead with black raspberries, mint, black licorice, chargrill and spice box. Hits the palate lightly to start, with fabulous purity and well-integrated tannins. Shows a nice mix of reddish/blue fruit and savory flavors. Builds power through the mid palate, displaying great layering, elegance and class. Very nice long and earthy finish. Like most of these wines, this needs some time. Not as good as the 16, but still super high quality

  6 people found this helpful 5,121 views

21 Comments

• LiteItOnFire commented:

  9/21/21, 5:18 PM - Thanks for this face off- great idea. Love the ‘16 and am surprised the ‘18 didn’t kill it. Did you get a sense it will fill out a bit with time and come together like many of the other ‘18s or no? These have recently been allocated to retail and trying to determine how many to buy (regular quantity, 2x, 3x, etc). Thanks as always for any additional insight here.

• MJP Hou TX commented:

  9/21/21, 5:36 PM - It would be really interesting to list the blocks that made up each of these wines. Vine Hill as you know is pretty diverse.

• Cristal2000 commented:

  9/21/21, 5:42 PM - LIOF: As you know, this style is very different from the others in this lineup. It's very fresh, pure and clean, leaning away from deep concentration for the sake of beauty and agility. I think it will pick up some concentration with time, as it did so even in the 5-6 hours it was open. But it's always going to stick to the older school approach. I remember having it on the same table as the 18 MacDonald, and it tasted like a spritzer next to an aged bourbon. Long story short, if this is your style, you'll love this wine, but I wouldn't expect it to be 16. It's going to be more lithe but never weigh down your palate.

• Cristal2000 commented:

  9/21/21, 5:44 PM - MJP is the ultimate VHR connoisseur! It would be interesting to list the blocks. That said, there's such a big gap between the winemaking styles represented, I am not sure that will tell the whole story.

• LiteItOnFire commented:

  9/21/21, 5:45 PM - Fair enough, thanks Cristal. They are all my style but the ‘16 was a standout.

• MJP Hou TX commented:

  9/21/21, 5:50 PM - Great point. I want to say TOR might be 6 & 7. Which I think is more aromatic than the benchland blocks.

• Cristal2000 commented:

  9/21/21, 5:53 PM - If you count aromas of cedar and oak, then it hit it out of the park :)
  
  I am having some left over AB on day 3 now, and this thing is still a brick house. It's going to be a big time ager.

• MJP Hou TX commented:

  9/21/21, 5:55 PM - Kinsman is picking from blocks 2 & 4 any day now. Going to be exciting to see what Nigel does with these blocks and vintage. They had contracts for 2020 and we know how that ended.
  
  Accendo already picked from 3 & 4 I believe a week or so ago.

• Cristal2000 commented:

  9/21/21, 5:57 PM - The VHR site is interesting. Parker never really loved the VHR namesake wine. I think his highest score was 96. AG of course loves it, but LPB still hasn't gone above 97 on any of them (for AB and MM). Of course, VHR doesn't even show them to her any longer. Now that Bruce is selling fruit to so many more producers, I'll be curious which style catches on. Obviously the Bond Vecina is the big exception, although they'd never say they are "buying fruit".

• Cristal2000 commented:

  9/21/21, 5:58 PM - Kinsman for Accendo I imagine?

• MJP Hou TX commented:

  9/21/21, 6:01 PM - Both. Accendo picked 3&4 and Kinsman is about to pick from 2 & 4.
  
  Expect to see a 2021 Kinsman Vine Hill Ranch wine!

• Cristal2000 commented:

  9/21/21, 6:05 PM - That's interesting. Kind of competing with Accendo in a way. I love the Kinsman wines and I imagine they will do an amazing job with it. My only question is if they will continue to push the price point like they did for this last vintage. Not doing that is what's made MacDonald a must have legend. I understand the business side, but wonder when they hit that point where they lose the mystique, less people are willing to pay up and they no longer have a waitlist. Already I get Accendo for less on the aftermarket, although they are at an even higher price point.

• MJP Hou TX commented:

  9/21/21, 6:07 PM - Agreed. It will be interesting to see if production goes up too. Rhad 16 was two barrels which makes it rare air.

• Cristal2000 commented:

  9/21/21, 6:11 PM - That is the key. It's hard to make a lot more wine and then try to keep the price super high. You get undercut if you have to distribute. Bruce's wine is like that - unless it's 100pt vintage, it will show up for less, especially now at $250. But he makes a ton of it and probably distributes at least half.

• MJP Hou TX commented:

  9/21/21, 6:13 PM - 18 VHR Extended Age will be 50 cases. I've heard it's a notch above the other offering. We shall see what an extra year in the barrel does for complexity.

• jimyeni commented:

  9/21/21, 9:22 PM - I’m surprised no one mentioned the blocks are right on the front label. The dots. 2018 was 1, 3, 4, 6 and they have harvest dates and yields tons/acre. 1100 cases of the 2018

• jimyeni commented:

  9/21/21, 9:23 PM - I will also say VHR is my favorite expression of this vineyard but I am very partial to the elegant, restrained style.

• LiteItOnFire commented:

  9/21/21, 9:44 PM - Wow 13,200 bottles of one wine is a crap ton… I bet this is the largest bottling of any ‘boutique’ Napa winery… 2,000 more bottles than the 2016. 45 barrels for one wine makes you wonder if they reduced the quantity could the quality improve/did the 2,000 more bottles reduce what the wine could have been?
  
  Looking at back vintages it doesn’t look like any other year is even close in quantity produced. I am a fan just concerned about price/quality now and into the future as the price and quantity increases can become worrisome with such a great wine.

• MJP Hou TX commented:

  9/22/21, 5:36 AM - Totally agree Lite on pricing and production. 18 was a bumper crop for almost every farmer in Napa. Yielding more fruit than most wineries could process or yet alone make estate wine. I think we are seeing hedging in pricing and production due to the loss of 2020. It will be interesting to see what the yields are in 2021 and what we see moving forward.

• NickRut commented:

  9/22/21, 6:33 AM - Love the side-by-side action here. Thinking I need to do more of these myself. Seems like fun.

• #1Winelover commented:

  9/28/21, 3:57 AM - Nice blind tasting! Knowing the winemakers, I was not surprised by your scores, with the exception of Jennifer's A&B so I will have to check that out. I don't think that palate and Peschon match well but I keep trying! Kinsman should kill it because those blocks (2 and 4) are Clone 4 which should be awesome!

Add a Comment