VHR Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 Vintage
VHR 2020 The 2020 growing season was among the most dramatic in memory, presenting myriad late-season challenges to growers and winemakers across Napa Valley. Among those challenges, wildfires were paramount, threatening personal safety and raising the possibility of smoke-tainted fruit. We were fortunate to have completed our harvest days before the Glass Fire started, ensuring that our wines would be free of any smoke-related character.
The 2020 VHR Cabernet Sauvignon is a vintage of tremendous focus and structure—testament to our good fortune, as well as to the caliber and resilience of the Vine Hill Ranch vineyard and the dedication and expertise of vineyard manager Mike Wolf and winemaker Françoise Peschon.
In what would prove to be the fourth year of drought in California, lighter-than-average winter rains spurred an early budbreak at Vine Hill Ranch, and a cool spring and summer growing season resulted in a relatively small crop of exceptional quality. August and September delivered welcome warmth that allowed for desired maturation in the vineyard. Fruit was harvested from August 24 through September 25 from blocks 1, 3, 4, and 6.
Showcasing the distinctive attributes of those vineyard blocks, the 2020 Vine Hill Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon is dark, highly structured, and wonderfully expressive. Blackberry fruit, gravel, spice, menthol, licorice, and cedar provide layers of breadth and texture. The vintage’s expansive and lush mouthfeel is framed by fine-grain tannins, dark ripe fruit, and vibrant acidity. Elegant and complex, possessed of a signature depth and exquisite balance, the 2020 VHR Cabernet Sauvignon perfectly captures the unique terroir of our family’s vineyard in Oakville.
A relatively light 2020 harvest began on August 24, with portions of our hillside Blocks 1 and 6 respectively yielding 2.7 tons & 2.8 tons per acre. Our benchland Blocks 3 and 4 each yielded 1.9 & 1.8 tons, completing our harvest on September 25, prior to the onset of the devastating Glass Fire that affected so much of the Napa Valley.
