Deck the Halls with Hall's Napa Cab

Deck the Halls with Hall's Napa Cab

Its always a great joy to indulge in good food and wine with friends and family. Tis the season to engage in special wines as part of the holiday festivities. One such brand I enjoy is a play on words, Hall Napa Valley wines to 'Deck the Halls' for seasonal fun. So it was that another Sunday after church dinner with family provided the occasion to open Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon with Linda's beef roast dinner.

We visited Hall's tasting room in St Helena in the old days (2003), before they opened their spectacular Rutherford Estate winery site adjacent to the vineyards on the lower slopes of the Vaca Range that form the eastern boundary of Napa Valley.

Our special tasting in the caves and tasting room there (shown left) was a highlight of our Napa Valley Wine Experience in 2013.

We hold Hall Napa Cabernets as well as their Sauvigon Blanc as staples in our cellar for festive wine occasions, as well as their signature Kathryn label for special vintages such as grand-kids' birth year wines (since this label didn't exist for our kid's birthyears) for related special occasions.

Hall Estate Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

We hold the remains of a case of this wine and savor every bottle as one of favorites in the style and character that we enjoy so much with our favorite foods.

Dark garnet colored, medium to full bodied, a symphony of flavors accented by bold expressive black berry and black raspberry fruits with highlights of anise and mocha with tones of cedar, sweet toasty oak and clove spice and hints of earthy leather turning to a smooth polished lingering finish.

RM 93 points.  

Consistent with my last tasting of this wine replayed below ... can't believe I waited this long to try it again!

Dark inky color, rich, dense, concentrated, style, full-bodied, fruit forward ripe sweet currant, ripe black raspberry, plum, black cherry fruits, mocha and hints of black licorice with a long soft tannin finish. Has the rich thick jammy fruit of a south Australian Shiraz." I would emphasize big, full, concentrated fruits with a firm tannic backbone. In this evening's tasting it met my highest expectations and stood over a Barossa Shiraz and Keenan Cab, was a perfect complement to New York strip steak dinner.


https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=761928

Hall T-Bar-T Alexander Cabernet with steak and squash ravioli

Hall T-Bar-T Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon with grilled steak and squash ravioli

For a quiet intimate dinner at home, we popped this bottle with grilled filets of beef with a delicious decadent concoction Linda pulled together of butternut squash ravioli sauteed in a sweet cranberry sauce of brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, olive oil and spinach. What a great combination on all fronts. Wow!

This wine was a fabulous complement to the steak as well as to the pasta. Everything exceeded all expectations on all levels.

Hall T-Bar-T Ranch Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2001 

We discovered this wine when we tasted and acquired it at the winery on our  Napa Wine Experience trip back in 2003. This year we visited Hall at their new spectacular Rutherford Winery during our Napa Wine Experience 2013.
 
Tonight this wine was more complex than earlier tasting notes indicated ... With a dark garnet color that is beginning to take on a slight brown brickish color - medium bodied, smooth polished silky texture, bright berry, red currant fruits with a tone of creme caramel that turns to a whisper of licorice on the finish.

Earlier notes say this is better than when tasted at the winery almost a decade ago. I think it is better than when last tasted three years ago, although it is starting to show its age in color and taking on a slight bit of earthiness and a smoky creosote undercurrent on the finish.

RM 90 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=26835

http://www.hallwines.com/

Hall and Keenan Napa Cabernet Duo - Haan Prestige Shiraz

Hall and Keenan Napa Cabernet Duo - Haan Prestige Barossa Shiraz

Three big reds compliment steak dinner at favorite local bistro

For a hearty dinner with friends Gayle and Mark at Angelis Italian, our favorite local bistro we tasted two big Napa Cabernets against a vintage Australian Shiraz - Hall 2006 and Keenan 2010 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignons, and Haan Prestige Barossa Shiraz 2003. We recently visited Hall Vineyards' magnificent Rutherford Estate during our Napa Valley Wine Experience 2013 so I wanted to revisit  one of my personally highest rated Hall Cabernets that we're holding in our cellar. The Keenan is currently available at Wine Discount Center so I wanted to taste it against a benchmark wine contemplating further purchases. In earlier tasting notes I likened it to a big juicy fruit forward Australian shiraz so a comparison tasting was in order.

Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

The Hall stood up to earlier accolades and indeed compared most favorably with the big bold Aussie Shiraz, and provided a comparison benchmark to stand up aside the Keenan.

From my earlier notes, the Hall presented "Dark inky color, rich, dense, concentrated, style, full-bodied, fruit forward ripe sweet currant, ripe black raspberry, plum, black cherry fruits, mocha and hints of black licorice with a long soft tannin finish.Has the rich thick jammy fruit of a south Australian Shiraz."  I would emphasize big, full, concentrated fruits with a firm tannic backbone. In this evening's tasting it met my highest expectations and stood over the Shiraz, the other Cab and was indeed a perfect complement to the New York strip steak dinner.

RM 93 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=761928

http://www.hallwines.com/




Keenan Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

Some of our favorite Napa Cabernets come from Spring Mountain District above the town of St Helena in the Mayacamas Range on the western slope of Napa Valley - Fantesca, Pride, Lail, and of course Paloma with their award winning Merlots. We visited Keenan Winery up on Spring Mountain during our Napa Wine Experience 2007.
We've had fun serving this wine with friend Jim Keenan.

Medium bodied, forward fruit flavors of blackberry and cherry, floral with a layer of licorice and hints of spice and coffee with moderate, soft tannins.

100% Cabernet Sauvignon - 73% from Spring Mountain, 27% from Pope Valley. 

RM 90 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1482065

http://www.keenanwinery.com/

Photo from our 2007 Keenan Vineyards visit high up Spring Mountain.

Keenan vineyard high up Spring Mountain

Haan Prestige Barossa Valley Shiraz 2003

The ladies preferred this more approachable wine with its full flavorful fruits to the firmer, tighter more structured and concentrated Cabernets.

Medium bodied, spicy, earthy leathery super ripe black berry fruit, touch of menthol, hint of vanilla on a long spice finish.

RM 89 points.
 
http://cellartracker.com/w?174207 
 

Hall Napa Valley Rutherford Estate

Hall Napa Valley Rutherford Estate

Another highlight of our recent Napa Valley Wine Experience 2013 was our tasting tour at Hall Vineyards Rutherford Estate. We first discovered Hall and their Napa Valley wines during our Napa Valley Wine Experience back in 2003. We've collected their signature label Napa Cabernet Sauvignon since. Along the way we picked up numerous vintage selections of their vineyard designated Sacrashe Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from the namesake vineyard. 

The Hall Sacrashe Vineyard, pictured left, sits on the lower tier of the Vaca Mountain Range on the eastern Napa slope above the tony Auberge du Soleil Resort, Spa and Restaurant.

Our gallery of pictures of our Hall Rutherford visit are on our Napa Wine Experience 2013 - Hall page on www.unwindWine.com.

The Sacrashe vineyard designated label evolved to the Kathryn Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon label with the 2006 vintage featured in our tasting journal back in March 18, 2010. This flagship label received numerous blockbuster ratings culminating in the 2009 release which was acclaimed the #2 wine in the world in Wine Spectator's annual Top 100. This was one of the highlights of the Wine Spectator's Grand Tour, Chicago, 2011.

We've had fun over the years giving the festive red labeled Hall wines to friends and family at Christmas, artfully decorated with a whimsical play on words, 'deck the Halls with boughs of holly..."

Hall has continued their development in Napa Valley with the opening of their Rutherford winery and tasting room located at the Sacrashe Vineyard. This has gone hand in hand with the proliferation of the number of labels on offer as well. They explain that the Rutherford crush facility is built to accommodate small lot production of crafted wines to complement the larger volume production capabilities of the Valley facility in St Helena.




The Rutherford winery features a stylish reception center with an outdoor patio and several interior tasting rooms with views overlooking the valley below. The center sits atop the winery production facility which connects to a network of caves dug into the mountain side below the famed Sacrashe Vineyard. The 14,000 square feet of caves were designed and built by hand by Friedrich Gruber of Gutenstein Austria. They are finished with handmade Austrian brick recovered from sites in and around Vienna.

Deep in the caves is the highlight of the facility, a magnificent cavernous tasting room with a massive table that can accommodate thirty. Over the table is a huge elegant crystal chandelier. The table offers picturesque views of the caves. Overlooking the room from the end wall is another large metal sculpture depicting the vines over a large table showcasing the selection of labels. To the rear of the room opposite the cave walk is a wine cellar housing some of the estates library wines.

Another remarkable feature of the cave facility is the displays of artwork from the Halls’ art collection. The numerous works of metal and glass sculptures are displayed in elegant nooks built into the walls of the caves to showcase the collection that also includes a historic vintage large format bottle decanting contraption with a hand crank (shown below).



The wines:

HALL Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2011

While not necessarily a collectable, we consider Sauvignon Blanc a mainstay of a comprehensive wine tasting with its clean crisp clear true representation of the white wine fruits. Hall is one of our favorites that we keep in our cellar for such occasions along with Duckhorn (featured in magnum at this years Open That Bottle Night 2013), David Arthur, and perhaps our favorite, Cliff Lede Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.

RM 89 points.



HALL "Kathryn Hall" Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

HALL “Kathryn Hall” Cabernet Sauvignon has become the flagship label replacing the historic vineyard designated Sacrashe label. It represents the most select fruit from the estate's vineyard blocks combined with select mountain fruit from vineyard partners. A blend of varietals results in a Bordeaux cuvée showcasing the dominant Sacrashe vineyard fruits.

Nearly opaque purple-black color, medium to full body, smooth and nicely polished, moderately complex with aromas of violets and cocoa and flavors of black berry and black raspberry and dark cherries,turning to hints of licorice, mocha and a subtle earthiness with moderate tannins on the finish.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1481291

HALL "Ellie's" Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

One of the range of new labels extending the selection of the Hall  brand, "Ellie's" is a tribute to Craig Hall's mother; an artist and teacher; who enlisted in World War II as soon as the U.S. Navy announced it would accept women. Ellie inspired Craig's interest in art collecting. In remembrance and further tribute to her, the label displays a pencil drawing by Ellie of an owl watching over a family vineyard.

Dark and full bodied, big fruit forward wine with layers complex layers of black fruits accented by tones of spicy clove and cassis with nicely integrated supple firm but nicely polished lingering tannins.

RM 91 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1545927

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1559443



Hall Darwin Proprietary Red Wine 2009  

Interesting blend named after the town of Darwin, Australia, where Kathryn and Craig’s small plane was required to make an emergency landing. Once safely on the ground, the Halls toasted their well-being with an Aussie Shiraz/Cabernet blend and pledged to craft a similar wine in the Napa Valley to commemorate the occasion. .

The 2009 HALL “Darwin” is an interesting blend of Syrah accented by Cabernet Sauvignon from the Hall Napa River Ranch estate. Dark, full bodied, forward black fruits accented by a layer of anise with tones of creosote and hints of tea and cedar.

RM 90 points.

85% Syrah, 15% Ccabernet Sauvignon

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1368904


http://www.hallwines.com/

More of Hall Rutherford; some highlights of the Hall art collection featured in the cellar cave:

 

More of our gallery of pictures of our Hall Rutherford visit are on our Napa Wine Experience 2013 - Hall page on www.unwindWine.com.

2006 Napa Cabernets for Festive Holiday and 5 Year Anniversary Celebration Dinner

2006 Napa Cabernets for Festive Holiday and 5 Year Anniversary Celebration Dinner

For this gala family dinner celebrating Erin & Johnny's 5th anniversary as well as early pre-Christmas we opened two 2006 vintage Napa Cabernet Sauvignons to accompany the beef tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, spinach and smoked Gouda cheese dip, artisan Fair Oaks Farm Ementheler cheese and four cheesecake medley deserts - turtle, caramel, berry-cream, and tiramirsou. 

Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauivignon 2006
Deck the Halls with boughs of holly ... We discovered Hall wines during our Napa Wine Experience 2003 with their moderrn op-art scuplture garden. The 2006 vintage was a high achievement for this Estate standard label Napa Cabernet with a Wine Spectator 93 point rating. Their flagship wine, Katheryn Hall 2006, was #20 on Wine Spectator's Top 100 of 2010 with a score of 96 points!. This year it was selected the #2 Wine of the Year in Wine Spectator's annual roundup.

This wine opened with a vibrant forward layer of cedar/camphor which burned off after an hour to reveal the sweet ripe berry fruits. Dark inky color, rich, dense, concentrated, style, full-bodied, fruit forward ripe sweet currant, ripe black raspberry, plum, black cherry fruits with hints of milk chocolate and vanilla on a long soft tannin finish. Not as lush and jammy as earlier tasting notes.

RM 93 points. 

http://www.hallwines.com


https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=761928


Chappellet Signature Napa Valley Cabernet Sauivignon 2006

We visited Chapellet Vineyards up on Pritchard Hill high above Napa town during our Napa Valley Wine Experience - Autumn '09. 


Dark inky purple color - medium-full bodied, complex and concentrated blackberry and black raspberry fruits in a tightly wound core accented by spicy oak on a balanced structured tannin finish.


This is actually a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon 76%, Merlot 18%, Malbec 4%, and Petit Verdot 2%.

RM 91 points.


https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=595997


http://www.chappellet.com/

Picturesque Pritchard Hill
overlooking Napa Valley

California Cabernet Wine & Dine Road Trip East

California Cabernet Wine & Dine Road Trip East

Another chapter in the life of a road warrior - a swing down the east coast - but one of those weeks that provides periodic rewards in the grind of business travel - some pleasurable dining experiences with great food and wine, and good company in some wonderful settings for some productive, effective business outcomes.

Hall Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Deep dark purple-garnet color - medium-full bodied. Very approachable and flavorful, a favorite, consistent with previous tastings with full forward flavors of black raspberry, black cherry, currant, hints of spice and dark chocolate. Available, tasted by the glass at Willys Steak House & Grill in Shrewsbury, Massachusets. Great complement to beef steak dinner with Jeff G.
RM 91 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=875375
http://www.willyssteakhouse.com/

Arrowood Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Medium bodied, dark purple color. Another perennial favorite, consistent pleasant easy drinking cab, aromas and flavors of black berry fruit accented by a layer of cigar box with a hint of dark mocha and cedar on a moderate smooth tannin laced finish. Great complement to beef steak filet laced with gorgonzola dinner w/ Dan H at the Fig Tree Restaurant At The Lucas House in Charlotte.
RM 89 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=654910
http://www.charlottefigtree.com/ 

A group business dinner at Wildfire Restaurant in Tyson's Corner Galleria Mall in Mclean, VA with Danny A, James S and CS partners George, Gary and David. The group provided the opportunity for a select flight dinner tasting of Napa/Sonoma cabs and a starter Carneros Pinot Noir. More to come ...

Beringer Sonoma Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 - Dark garnet color - medium bodied, aromas and flavors of somewhat forward black raspberry and black currants with a subtle layer of dark mocha chocolate through the moderate tannin lingering finish. Not as complex or sophisticated as the others but once again as is often the case, this is a high achieving moderately priced wine that offers good QPR (quality price ratio). 
RM 89 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1194880

Beringer Private Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 - Dark inky purple color, medium-full bodied; complex black raspberry, black berry, with a layer of dark chocolate and hints of cassis, oak and spice on a soft, smooth silky lingering finish.
RM 92 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=770953 


Chimney Rock Napa Valley Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 - Dark inky color, medium to full bodied; slightly tighter, firm and more closed than the others indicating it perhaps needs more time to open; fragrance and flavors of black berry, hints of spice and lead pencil, with subtle pepper and cedar notes on a balanced moderate tannin finish.
RM 90 points.
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1063566


Etude Napa Valley Carneros District Pinot Noir 2008 - Opaque ruby colored, medium to light bodied; nose and flavors of red berry fruits - cranberries, bing cherries, hints of strawberry with layer of dusty rose petals and hint of spice on the finish.
RM 88 points. 
https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1208540

Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 - Montelena, Hall, Trefethen - Fleming's Steak House - By the Glass Offerings

Three current release Napa cabs available by the glass at Fleming's Steak House, Tyson's Corner, Mclean, VA.

Hall Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2007 - RM 91 points: Very approachable for being so young - drinking great right now - deep purple-garnet color - medium-full bodied. Full forward flavors of black raspberry, black cherry, currant, hints of spice and dark chocolate. Great complement to the Portobello Mushroom Ravioli. This wine represents a good value. - http://cellartracker.com/w?875375

Chateau Montelena Estate Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2007 - RM 89 points: Dark, full bodied - firm, complex black berry, black cherry fruits with hint of tobacco, tar and anise. Somewhat tight and closed - needs time. This would no doubt go well with a juicy steak. Parker gave this wine a 94 indicating its potential in a few years, noting it should be cellared for five years and should last for thirty years. - http://cellartracker.com/w?617461

Trefethen Double T Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 - RM 87 points: Medium bodied - cherry and berry fruit flavors, hint of spice - a bit austere/lean on the structure.  -  http://cellartracker.com/w?788206