Vine Hill Ranch

VHR, Napa Valley, 2021

Name: VHR, Napa Valley
Brand: Vine Hill Ranch
Price: 701.56 GBP

100/100

The Wine Independent

99/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

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New Release
2021
3x75cl
DP
£701.56

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

2021 VHR is the Philips family’s most noble, wise and perfect wine to date, the high-watermark in a glittering series of releases from this most storied of Napa Vineyards. Widely considered one of the greatest sites in the valley, this west facing benchland site in southern Oakville plays host to a range of top single vineyard designate bottlings produced by a select few customers who are granted access to the Philips Family’s fabulous fruit. Most are given a single block, at most two, whereas the family VHR blend is composed from across the site, with a blend selected each year to best represent the greatest aspects of this exceptional site. Four blocks feature in 2021, two from the hilliest sections, those closest to the forest, and two from lower down the slopes. The resulting wine is an exceptional example of what makes modern Napa so compelling. Harking back to the elegance found in the wines of the early nineties, with greater precision, depth, and focus, this is a wine that will age with grace and panache, offering pleasure at every point of their elongated drinking window. Darkly mineral, and crisp with cool dark berries, its aromas are interspersed with notes of rosemary, violets, mountain bay and rock salt. And while it seems strange to say it, you an almost smell the tension before it hits your palate. Whip smart, precision tooled, and yes taut, it’s nevertheless sleek, suave and impeccably integrated; the dark fruit is seamlessly melded to the commanding tannic network giving the wine a sense of effortless power. Minerals swirl, touches of the forest offer up both base notes and aromatic highlights, leading to a finish that extends effortlessly into the distance. Noble, vertical, impeccable. Very much a wine of distinction. Great Napa like this speaks in whispers yet commands the attention like almost nothing else.

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GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of upmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

99/100

Antonio Galloni,

Vinous

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon is fascinating to taste next to the Extended Age bottling. It offers a bit more aromatic presence and brightness. A burst of plum, violet, lavender and cinnamon opens. Energy and tension abound. What a wine. It is very clearly one of the wines of the vintage.

drinking window 2029 - 2041

date of review 12/2025

100/100

Lisa Perrotti-Brown,

The Wine Independent

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon rolls out of the glass with expressive scents of freshly crushed black cherries, warm cassis, and juicy blackberries followed by hints of menthol, dark chocolate, licorice, and cinnamon stick plus a fragrant waft of violets. The full-bodied palate is densely laden with vibrant black fruits and loads of baking spice sparks, framed by exquisitely ripe tannins and well-knit freshness, finishing very long and achingly perfumy. 946 cases were made.

drinking window 2028 - 2058

date of review 11/2023

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abv:

14.8%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.