2019 Keplinger Cabernet Sauvignon Vine Hill Ranch

Community Tasting Notes (9) Avg Score: 97 points

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  5/2/2024 - AGELVIS Likes this wine: 97 Points

  Three hour decant. Very deep dark magenta color. Blackberry, boysenberry, bitter chocolate, slate, and Rice Krispies. Dry, satiny, full bodied palate. Firm, full tannins on the long finish.
  
  Youth is the only flaw here. This has terrific structure and mouthfeel. The fruit is intense and voluptuous. My notes don’t do this justice.

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  4/25/2024 - Cablover1982 Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Incredible wine. 4 hour decant. Bright fruited, lots of red cherry, concrete, little tobacco, baking spices, graphite and rock dust. Vivacious, boisterous and appealing. Only downside was it kinda felt hot/burning at the finish. It’s rare I ever get that cause I love big Napa wines. I’d love to get more and age them a bit.
  
  Tasted with VHR ‘14 which was loved more by wife and I. More age and better development must have helped.
  
  Gotta try Kep’s OVR next. Cheers

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  4/16/2024 - sfwinelover1 Likes this wine: 97 Points

  Brought to VHR winery by MN so we could observe a side by side treatment of the same (relatively same, at least, both in terms of blocks and different vintage) grapes. I had this 2 years ago at Keplinger’s tasting room in Napa, and bought a bottle, and while I don’t recall DJ’s aeration ablutions, it was, for my palate, completely unready to drink, although highly promising. MN opened and slow ox’d this 6 hours before we got to the winery, and to say this needed that, and probably could have used 4x that, would be an understatement. Still, this wine has gone from potential greatness to being near the doorstep of it, as the black currants, plums and dark berries are far more apparent, joining very dark earth, spice, dark florals and rocky minerality in a wine that almost has an LPV tang at present. I’m not nearly as vintage wise as most of my CT friends, so I won’t be teaching any master classes on ‘19 vs. Bruce’s ‘21, but if I had both bottles within reach, I’d pop the cork on Bruce’s wine waaaay before this, as that wine’s wonderful silkiness currently contrasts favorably with the quality, even if much diminished in the past 2 years, of picking sharp objects out of your teeth and so much chewiness you may be checking to see if you’ve exceeded the FDA daily fiber requirement. Still, this reinforces my earlier thought that this will be an absolute banger, and, again, comparing the 2 bottles, at a solidly lower winery price, a very justifiable choice for wine spend dollars if just one bottle is possible. This could ultimately be the better wine of the 2, full stop, but it isn’t for me yet. 96 on this today with 98-99+ potential, so 97 seems a fair compromise. Huge thanks to MN here, as everywhere else, for his generosity.

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  4/12/2024 - AGELVIS Likes this wine: 96 Points

  Splash decant. Deep dark intense magenta color. Powdered boysenberry, black plum, river rock, violet, and brown spice. Very dry, gritty palate, with nice, pixelated acidity. Satiny tannins on the longish finish.
  
  This was on of the surprise highlights from my recent trip to Napa. Score might be even higher with a legit decant.

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  10/25/2023 - MJP Hou TX Likes this wine: 98 Points

  TXRDW/Lucio's Houston.
  
  Rob was a very generous host and brought some incredible wines to the table from the 2019 vintage. All wines sourced from Vine Hill Ranch.
  
  VHR
  
  Keplinger
  
  Arrow & Branch
  
  Memento Mori
  
  Helen Keplinger's wine is beautiful. Of the wines at the table this was my favorite to drink right now. A friend described this as having elegant power. Fresh, without being overdone, tons of depth with enough acidity to keep things in balance. I totally agree with these notes that never made it onto CT. So I'll write them here!
  
  98+
  
  Drink or hold

  4 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comments (9)

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