Winemaker’s Tasting Notes: Winemaker Jeff Ames says “The 2022 Black Magic is always the most intense and dark/tension filled wine of ours when young, this year‘s Black Magic is no different. Showing loads of roasted meats, Christmas baking spices, black currant and anise on the initial taste and beginning of the palate. This has copious black tea and graphite notes on the mid palate, which just exudes power and richness, before it slowly tapers off to a finish that just doesn’t seem to quit for minutes on end.”

Vintage Report: Winemaker Jeff Ames and Tor Kenward have collectively witnessed over 70 harvests, and cannot compare 2022 to any of them. Some winemakers said it was four vintages in one, with the wild swings in temperature, small crop, and small picking windows made it one we call “ a winemaker’s year”. Those who nailed the right picking windows for each block made exceptional wines. Our 8 blocks in Beckstoffer To Kalon formed the core of this vintage’s Black Magic.

Tor’s Note: Real magic cannot be explained or reasoned. It is astonishing and challenges our imagination. It is in this wine. It is black as a moonless Napa Valley night, and limitless on the palate, a magic trick only the great wines master. It is born from a rigid barrel selection, is very limited, and is not made every year – only when it chooses to appear. As winemakers, we can coax it to emerge from the barrel, but it appears only when it is ready. For Black Magic you need not, should not, know more.

Watch the meaning behind TOR Magic below…

Cooper Kenward – Editor
Robby Piantanida – Director of Photography and Colorist