2015 Halpin Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

“If everyone understood the wine business,” Halpin began at our last meeting in the courtyard at The Westin in Napa, “I wouldn’t have access to this kind of fruit. And it’s an ever-changing game. Some years it’s bumper crops all the way to the winery, and some vintages are like 2015, with tiny crops, and wineries can’t even bottle their single-vineyard wines, because it costs too much.”

We’d known Halpin had something special to share—and also a point to make—but his pitch caught us by surprise. 

From his bag he produced an unlabeled bottle of wine, known affectionately in the biz as a “shiner,” and brandished it in front of us. 

“This is my Reserve Napa Cabernet from 2015. This is from a blue-chip Napa estate that needed cash. Money for new tanks and grape presses doesn’t grow on trees, and I was there—right place, right time. This is no joke—of course they made me sign an NDA, but this winery is a household name. Yields in 2015 were so low these guys would’ve been forced to blend this dynamite Cab with other lots to justify the bottling costs, if I hadn’t been there to step in.” 

Halpin had been trekking up and down the Silverado Trail jonesing for ultra-concentrated Cabernet—the signature of the hot 2015 vintage—and at last he found what he was looking for: grapes that are a cut above the Napa standard, and worthy of aging long enough to put a “Reserve” stamp on the label. And at $25 on cases, the real magic is that his Reserve Cabernet beats most California-labeled wines on price. Better yet, because we’ve been aging this wine ourselves it’s ready to ship tomorrow.

“Let’s taste it already,” we said. But before Halpin pulled the cork, he dug in his heels and reminded us what the critics said about the 2015 vintage.

“Parker’s Advocate rated the season 97 points, which puts it in the ‘Extraordinary’ category, and like I’ve been saying, his vintage report called it ‘a small crop of extremely high quality’ for all of Northern California’s Cabernet grapes. Galloni called ‘em all ‘thrilling at the top,’ and this,” he said, finally pulling the cork, “is the top.” 

“Okay, we’ve got it, Halpin. Pour.”

We had to hand it to him. The 2015 Halpin Napa Cabernet Reserve is dense and chewy, but elegant, with elongated tannins, and excellent length—all the structural hallmarks of a true Reserve wine, which we would expect to hold up in the cellar for a good amount of time. Its deep purple color gives way to a plethora of intense flavors of pomegranate, black cherry, and blackberry enveloped in cocoa, baking spice, and firm tannins. 

One taste was good enough. We took all 285 cases he produced. How could we not? The black and blue fruits, the elongated tannins that seem almost Old World in structure, and the mid-palate that reveals a concentrated core of black cherry and blackberry ripeness that is pure Napa. This is a killer Cab, straddling the line of Bordeaux structure and California opulence.