2020 Hawk and Horse Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Red Hills Lake County 750 ml

When David Boies saw the El Roble Grande Ranch in 1982, he saw incredible vineyard potential.

This was long before Andy Beckstoffer added Lake County holdings to his famed Napa lineup of To Kalon, George III, and Las Piedras—so the region was untapped and virtually unknown in the fine-wine world. But the red volcanic soils, high elevation, and dramatic slopes had a lot in common with great sites in Napa. 

When we heard the description, we immediately thought of Diamond Creek’s Volcanic Hill, or a few sites on Mt. Veeder—and, tasting this 2020, we see the kinship.

The untapped nature of the place married perfectly with Boies and his team’s ambition to create something big and grand, and now Hawk and Horse is farmed biodynamically. They’ve even gone through the trouble and headache to become certified by Demeter, taking a step that most wineries don’t bother with—one that hints at the attention to detail present across the board.

Their wine is made by Dick Peterson, one of the greatest legends of California fine wine. The successor to André Tchelistcheff at Beaulieu Vineyard—hand-picked by Tchelistcheff himself—he crafted BV’s flagship bottles during the winery’s heyday, igniting a career that made him one of Napa Valley’s most influential vintners and led him to be the original consulting winemaker at Screaming Eagle.  

Peterson gave the 2020 a no-expense-spared treatment in the cellar, in line with Hawk and Horse’s mission to craft some of the finest Cabernet in California. Harvested in early October, after plenty of hang-time to develop rich flavors, it aged in 80% new French oak for nearly two years, softening the burly mountain tannins and intense fruit into a beautiful, cohesive whole.