Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2019 Kathryn Hall Cabernet Sauvignon is sublime and memorable. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas and flavors of red currants, black fruit, and exotic spices. Enjoy it with an oven-baked, well-seasoned Porchetta. (Tasted: June 22, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Kathryn Hall is a blend of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot, brought up mostly in new barrels. It’s a killer bottle of wine offering lots of ripe black fruits intermixed with savory herbs, melted chocolate, and tobacco. Medium to full-bodied on the palate, it shows the lush, round, velvety style of the 2019 vintage and is already impossible to resist. It’s going to evolve for 15+ years if well stored.
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Wine Spectator
Rich and fleshy in feel, but with a nice juicy edge for balance, this lets creamed plum and blackberry fruit spill forth, laced liberally with mocha, singed alder, sweet tobacco and melted black licorice. For the hedonist crowd.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Kathryn Hall is composed of 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple colored, it bursts on the scene with bright, cheery, expressive notes of kirsch, black raspberries, blackcurrant pastilles and violets, plus suggestions of unsmoked cigars, bouquet garni and fragrant earth. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers wonderful freshness with youthful, crunchy red and black fruit layers and finely grained tannins, finishing on a lingering minerally note.
Barrel Sample: (95-97)+
Hall Wines is located in Napa Valley and employs organic small-vine viticulture, precision winemaking, wild-yeast fermentation and micro-block blending to fully extract the purity and quintessence of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Their estate vineyards encompass more than 300 acres of classic Bordeaux varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc. The Halls have a strong respect for the environment and a commitment to cutting edge technology to yield the highest quality grapes. Through meticulous attention to detail in the vineyards, Hall wines are able to express the unique and diverse character of Napa Valley's soils and climate.
One of the most prestigious wines of the world capable of great power and grace, Napa Valley Cabernet is a leading force in the world of fine, famous, collectible red wine. Today the Napa Valley and Cabernet Sauvignon are so intrinsically linked that it is difficult to discuss one without the other. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that this marriage came to light; sudden international recognition rained upon Napa with the victory of the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
Cabernet Sauvignon undoubtedly dominates Napa Valley today, covering half of the land under vine, commanding the highest prices per ton and earning the most critical acclaim. Cabernet Sauvignon’s structure, acidity, capacity to thrive in multiple environs and ability to express nuances of vintage make it perfect for Napa Valley where incredible soil and geographical diversity are found and the climate is perfect for grape growing. Within the Napa Valley lie many smaller sub-AVAs that express specific characteristics based on situation, slope and soil—as a perfect example, Rutherford’s famous dust or Stags Leap District's tart cherry flavors.