United States · California

Vine Cliff

Vine Cliff Winery is a small Oakville estate established in 1871 and revived under current ownership in 1985 by Robert Sweeney, farming approximately 40 acres on the Oakville benchland. The estate produces two principal Cabernet Sauvignons: the standard estate bottling and the Private Stock 16 Rows, a single-block selection from the property's most distinctive parcel. The standard Cabernet Sauvignon leads at auction with 42 lots averaging $100 per bottle and the 1999 vintage the most collected; the Private Stock 16 Rows averages $52 across 36 lots with the 1997 vintage most traded. Auction prices reach $362. The price relationship is unusual — the standard estate Cabernet commanding higher averages than Private Stock 16 Rows — likely reflecting the relative scarcity and age of older estate bottlings versus the Private Stock's higher production volume. Vine Cliff's Oakville benchland location gives its Cabernet Sauvignon the classic deep-soil alluvial character: cassis, graphite, and firm structure. With an overall auction average of $65 across 150 lots, the estate occupies the accessible mid-premium tier of Oakville Cabernet, well below the trophy tier of neighboring estates but offering genuine appellation typicity at reasonable secondary market prices.