You know a vineyard is pretty special when two winemakers like Brad Grimes (Abreu Vineyards) and Sam Kaplan (Arkenstone, Memento Mori, Nine Suns) advise you to check it out. We were asking around about Pritchard Hill - looking for a new single vineyard wine source - and both Brad and Sam mentioned Houyi Vineyard...Sitting nearly at the top of Pritchard Hill, Houyi is owned by the Chang family, who bought it in 2010. It's a fantastically complicated site - everything on Pritchard is - and the Changs farm it with no holds barred. They're much more concerned with growing the best fruit they can than with trying to save a dime. Our kind of partner. We got our first fruit from the vineyard in 2013...We have about seven acres under contract - all Cabernet Sauvignon - with different exposures, slopes, rootstocks, clones. It all gets picked, sorted and fermented separately. One vineyard site...many different wines. |Realm Cellars...Lots of gravelly earth and mineral as well as blue fruit, chocolate, leather, and violet notes emerge on the nose, and it's full-bodied on the palate, with beautiful tannins and flawless balance. It's incredibly complex and brings plenty of mountain structure and concentration on the palate while holding onto a beautiful sense of finesse and elegance... | 97 points, Jeb Dunnuck for jebdunnuck.com