2013 Arietta Red Wine H Block Hudson Vineyards 750 ml

When our Head of Wine Vanessa Conlin, MW joined the Wine Access team right after working at several top-end Napa Valley wineries, she came with a very short list of wines she couldn’t wait to bring to Wine Access members. At the very top was Arietta’s flagship Red Wine H Block Hudson Vineyards. It’s the wine she pours for her most avid collector friends, whether they love Bordeaux or California Cabernet. It’s also the one she opens for pure pleasure—and a ton of top Napa Valley winemakers do the same. 

We have the very last bottles of the show-stopping 2013. Crafted by multi-100-point winemaker Andy Erickson in one of Napa Valley’s greatest vintages ever, the tiny-production H Block is as close as California comes to the Bordeaux Right Bank classic Château Cheval Blanc: Aromas of red currant and blackberry are accented by intertwining crushed violets, licorice, clove, mint, tobacco, and baking spices, all carried on an elegant frame. It’s got a pleasant touch of structured grip to the tannins, and a very long and complex finish that guarantees a glorious life in the cellar. 

The pedigree of the winemaker, the 98-point vintage, and the renowned vineyard source—Arietta has an exclusive lease on Hudson’s H Block, which grows perhaps the finest Cabernet Franc in California—all add up to a red that belongs alongside the cult Cabernets and Bordeaux Grands Crus, at a price that puts most of those wines to shame. This is one of Napa Valley’s defining wines, and one we're always thrilled to pull out of the cellar.

Vanessa's first job in Napa Valley was as a buyer at a wine shop in St. Helena, where she Arietta proprietors Fritz and Caren Hatton, who lived nearby and would deliver their wine themselves. She loved the wines from the start, and as soon as she got to know the warm and joyous Hattons, she knew she wanted to work for them. They’d never had an employee, so they invited Vanessa over to their Victorian and they sat in the backyard discussing the idea—with their dogs, cats, chickens, and daughters running around.

It wasn’t just the environment that made it an amazingly lucky first winery job, because Arietta is awash in some of the top talent and grapes in California. Their winemaker is the renowned multi-100-point Andy Erickson, and the Hudson Vineyards Cabernet Franc that goes into this wine comes from vines planted more than thirty years ago with To Kalon and Eisele Vineyard cuttings.

Hudson’s volcanic soils, warm southwestern exposure, and the cool Carneros climate make this one of the finest spots in the New World to grow Cab Franc. For the Red Wine H Block, the grapes are co-fermented with Merlot from the adjacent G and I Blocks. Then the wine spends 20 months in mostly new French oak, and is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

The result is one of the most special and cellar-worthy wines made in Napa Valley. For the Bordeaux collector or Napa Valley aficionado who wants to experience California’s pinnacle of Right Bank winemaking, there is no better bottle. Claim your share of this special tiny-production red right now.