“Baker & Hamilton is one of Napa Valley’s undiscovered jewels. The Phillips family quietly markets this wine mostly to the trade and doesn’t really make much of an emphasis to point out that all the fruit is sourced from their Vine Hill Ranch estate. Think of this Cabernet as a softer and more accessible expression of one of Napa Valley’s most elite sites.” – Antonio Galloni’s Vinous

What a day to be a Cab-sleuthing Wine Spies Operative. Once again, we’re coming in from the top rope with a stone-cold stunner of a deal straight from the cellar of THE Vine Hill Ranch.

95 POINTS! Released at $130, offered for as low as $125 at a few high-end retailers and today held at $150 as a library release from the winery… to have ANY of this wine at all is nearly unimaginable. But dropping it to this price?! Very demure, as the kids are saying.

Oakville is home to some of Napa’s best producers - Screaming Eagle, Opus One, Mondavi, Promontory and many others.

But over the last decade or so, one name has been rising the ranks. And today Vine Hill Ranch might be the hottest property on the block. Bruce Kelham purchased VHR in the mid-1950s and in the late 70s the family set to work establishing Vine Hill Ranch as a top tier grape growing business.

For 40 years Vine Hill Ranch supplied fruit to titans of industry - BOND, Dalla Valle and TOR to name a few. Starting in 2008 they began keeping a portion of the fruit with a goal of making singular Cabernet Sauvignon to rival the very best around.

To that end, they recruited one of the best winemakers in the game - FRANÇOISE PESCHON. Her career began at Château Haut-Brion, and she returned to Napa to spend 14 years at Araujo Estate (now Eisele Vineyard) before taking the reins at VHR. She was named Winemaker of the Year for 2019 by the San Francisco Chronicle and Antonio Galloni’s Vinous in 2021.

Kelli White, Director of Education for the Wine Center at Meadowood in Napa Valley, says that “Since its inception, the wine [VHR, Vine Hill Ranch] has ranked among Napa’s top performers. Its limited 500-case production fosters its status as a well-kept secret, though competition for the bottles is increasingly fierce…” and David Rosengarten of Forbes ads, “The vineyard of which I sing - Vine Hill Ranch - quietly, surreptitiously, played one of the most central roles of all in the rise of California’s most iconic region.”

Baker and Hamilton is the first new project from VHR in a decade, and represents a “second” wine from the property. But it’s a first-class project that doesn’t hide in the shadow of their flagship wine. Sourced from a few blocks that typically form the heart of their VHR Cabernet, it’s a 100% Cabernet raised in 85% new French Oak. Medium to full-bodied, it shows off a fleshy, dusty core of black plum, black currant. Hints of fresh tobacco leaf, violets, pencil lead, and black licorice join the fray, and it’s all held together by fine-grained tannins and a vibrant acidity.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate recaps, “The first vintage of this wine - from the principals of Vine Hill Ranch - was the 2019. Released exclusively to the trade in California, Michigan, and Texas (at least for the moment), production here may soon allow for expansion into other states. Deliberately made by Françoise Peschon in a softer, more approachable style than Vine Hill Ranch, the wines are still delicious, even the 2020, which is the current release.”

No doubt, this is one of the wines of the year so far, and we are feeling some kind of way knowing you won’t find it anywhere else at this price!

95 Points – Wine Enthusiast

“Pleasing flavors of black currant, sweet tobacco, bay laurel and graphite are carried on a well-structured and refined frame of persistent tannins and mouthwatering acidity. This is a well-crafted Cabernet Sauvignon with the tenacity to age, expressive of where it is grown.”