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A Value Napa Red for the Ages

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    2016 Halpin Red Wine Napa Valley 750 ml

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    • Curated by unrivaled experts
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    • Temperature controlled shipping options
    • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

    Halpin’s Napa Red: A Perfect Snapshot of 2016

    An invitation to have lunch at The Grill at Meadowood in St. Helena is more than enough to get us to clear our schedules. Even though we had tasted Halpin’s Napa Valley Red Wine at HQ, he demanded we join him and “experience the whole bottle,” along with The Grill’s Wagyu Burger. Enough said. 

    “I set out to make a Cabernet Sauvignon blend that is the perfect representation of the 2016 vintage—possibly the greatest vintage Napa has ever seen,” Halpin proclaimed as our plates hit the table and the waiter poured out Halpin’s 2016 Napa Valley Red. “I can’t tell you the fruit source, but I can tell you the winery makes a $95 Cabernet and the vines are—I kid you not—within spitting distance of Beckstoffer’s Dr. Crane Vineyard. I blended in some Malbec, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc, and it spent 22 months in French oak.”  

    It has to be said: One bite of that perfectly-cooked burger, medium-rare, washed down with a generous sip of Halpin’s $20 red was as good as the feeling you get catching the shimmer of a seemingly endless ocean on your first day of vacation at the beach. Loads of up-front red fruit and cinnamon spice, earth, and cedar. Silky and satiny with generous black cherry, boysenberry, and blue fruit notes with a touch of Pastis or crème de cassis. 

    Why is it that some of the best winemakers in Napa are hellbent on producing proprietary red blends that don’t boast a single vineyard on the label, and only bear “Napa Valley” or “California” as the appellation? The answer is surprisingly simple: They’re all after the same thing—a bottled time-capsule and perfect snapshot of each vintage. 

    It’s why 100-point legend and former Screaming Eagle winemaker Andy Erickson makes Leviathan Red Wine from “California” and why Joseph Phelps’ iconic Insignia only includes the words “Red Wine” and “Napa Valley” on the label. Both are Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant, but like any great artist, the top winemakers of a region like to put their stamp on each vintage so that they can boast of making the perfect red blend from a particular region in a specific vintage.

    We tend to read vintage reports religiously, especially from The Big Three: Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, Antonio Galloni’s Vinous, and Wine Spectator. Why? These publications put people on the ground to taste through hundreds of wines for each region, and their reporting is consistent year to year. 

    The Big Three all came to the same consensus that the 2016 vintage for Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines from Napa Valley was extraordinary. The Advocate wrote, “2016 was not just a great year for Napa Cabernet Sauvignon; there are many amazing Cabernet Francs and Merlots to be found too, possessing wonderful elegance and perfumes.” Wine Spectator noted that “2016 extends a run of exceptional years for Cabernet Sauvignon,” while Vinous called the wines “viscerally thrilling,” courtesy of a “captivating vintage from top to bottom,” and noted that some bottles are “destined to become icons.”

    For Halpin, the auspicious brand that was launched at a Napa Valley dinner party, this 2016 Napa Valley Red Wine is squarely in the running for the vintage’s iconic red blend.