ZOOM TASTING: TOR WINES

In James’ recent Zoom tasting with Tor Kenward and Jeff Ames, proprietor and winemaker at Tor Kenward Family Wines, the quality of the 2018 vintage in Napa Valley was on full show. Particularly at a winery such as Tor, which makes only a few barrels of each wine and pays such close attention to the entire winemaking process from vine to bottle.

Tor Kenward Family Wines was founded in 2001 by Tor Kenward and his wife Susan. They make a small production of single-vineyard wines from the best lots of the best vineyards. Each vintage, only a few barrels are made of each wine, allowing Tor to pay extremely close attention to the entire process of making each wine from vine to bottle.

During the call, they tasted a selection of their wines which showed great diversity. Tor gave James some insight into the 2018 vintage. “2018 is about as good as it gets,” Tor said. James particularly enjoyed the Tor Napa Valley Pure Magic Vine Hill Ranch Vineyard 2018, which is a new super selection from Tor Kenward from Vine Hill Ranch and his team from one of James’ favorite vineyards in the Oakville AVA with a long history of making great wines. They also talked about the 2019 vintage, the horrendous 2020 fires and more.

Watch the video to hear the highlights of the conversation and see what they thought of the wines.