2019 TOR Pure Magic Vine Hill Ranch

The 2019 Pure Magic Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard is powerful, dark and intensely savory. A blast of inky dark fruit, scorched earth, tobacco, leather and incense gives this explosive, vibrant Cabernet Sauvignon tons of aromatic complexity and nuance. The 2019 is beautifully perfumed and yet also stunningly deep, a combination that works so well here. The purity here is just striking. Once again, Tor's Cabernet Sauvignon/Petit Verdot from Vine Hill Ranch is lights out.

Lastly, the 2019 Pure Magic Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard checks in as a blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon from Block 7 and 46% Petit Verdot from Block 3 of this fabulous Oakville vineyard. It has that classic Vine Hill freshness and purity (this is a cooler site in Oakville) in its cassis and almost blue fruits as well as sappy herbs, spring flowers, chalky minerality, and damp earth. I love its pure, vibrant, focused style, and it's full-bodied on the palate, with building yet polished tannins and a great finish. It's a singular wine in the lineup and builds beautifully with air, offering a complex, nuanced, powerful style that will reward 4-5 years of bottle age and cruise for 30+ years if stored properly.

In comparison, the 2019 Pure Magic Vine Hill Ranch is slightly more brooding and backward aromatically, with a dense, reticent nose of beautiful blue fruits, spring flowers, violets, and graphite. This carries to a ripe, sweetly fruited, incredibly sexy 2019 with loads of texture and opulence yet a weighty, full-bodied, seamless mouthfeel. It's not as structured or tannic as the Black Magic and will be accessible relatively early on, yet it should still have two decades of prime drinking.