
2023 KHK Hillside Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Our truly joyous and just-plain-rocking Hillside bottling is the quintessential big brother, the one to pop when you’ve high on life, it’s ON, and you’re feeling like dunking into something seriously hedonistic. Sourced entirely from Lindsay’s family’s Shifflett Ranch, we chose the best rows along the eastern bench land for a limited run of single-vineyard greatness - THANK YOU TRB! Crushed it!
Not for the shy, this rocking Napa Valley vintage is dark and intense, popping and percolating with head-spinning levels of aromatics, and that’s before it even hits your tongue. Sort of a magic-carpet-ride of brooding intensity, that, like the Napa, unfolds minute by minute for hours. As the cork unseals you get the first olfactory hit – perfumy sweet roses and what feels like sweet toasted peppercorns, a ferrous note (props to the Shifflett terroir!) and a whiff of warm cloves. The color! We’d call it midnight maybe, or onyx, and it hits your mouth like a rush of joyous savory darkness. It’s a bit of brain overload at first, in the best way, and as you continue to drink it you can begin to separate the components – the blackberry spectrum, leather, ion, pipe tobacco, sweet foresty earth elements, and a very cool aged-beef-like note that sends you immediately into the kitchen for some killer cheese and throw a steak on ASAP. With air, the acidity clarifies, giving backbone and structure. The finish...well, "lingering" is a well-worn descriptor, but...it fits perfectly. It lingers, seriously, for a minute or so. It grips you, while showing polish and complexity. Immensely satisfying at this tender age with some superb protein and of course will hold in your cellar for easily a decade or more.
Only 300 cases made – best of the best!
Tasting Notes (PDF)
- WinemakerThomas Rivers Brown
- AppellationNapa Valley
- VineyardShifflett Vineyard
- Alcohol14.9%
- Production300 cases