2018 Halpin Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville Napa Valley is sold out.

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The Vine Runner’s Triple-Digit Cabernet for Much Less

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    2018 Halpin Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville Napa Valley 750 ml

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    Sign up to receive notifications when wines from this producer become available.
    • Curated by unrivaled experts
    • Choose your delivery date
    • Temperature controlled shipping options
    • Get credited back if a wine fails to impress

    Not Even an NDA Could Stop Us From Beating Halpin to the Punchline

    Really, Halpin?!?

    “Yes, every single vine that produced every single berry of this Cabernet was snuck into the US from France. Why do you think THAT 100-point French guy jumped at the chance to make wine from these vines?” 

    Halpin always knows how to get our attention on a phone call. It would turn out that there’s real merit to his claims though—as much as we hear about suitcase clones and the lore surrounding their unlikely journeys from some French First Growth, we’d actually heard this particular story. 

    Had the Coombsville winery in question not had surplus grapes to sell, there would be only one way to secure bottles of their $275 Cabernet—you’d have to be on the winery mailing list. But, as Halpin never forgets to remind us, “I’ve got a Rolodex that most world leaders would love to get their hands on.” 

    What that means for longtime Halpin fans—and those new to Halpin’s wines—is that we can vouch for the impeccable pedigree of grapes that went into this 2018 Halpin Cabernet Sauvignon. Even while we were getting the “NDA” treatment, the few names and details Halpin offered were enough that we surmised exactly the source of his latest release. Finally—we had one on Halpin!   

    So it goes: One call to his “Great Vine Pirate” netted Halpin a couple of tons of incredible grapes, resulting in today’s 2018 Halpin Napa Cabernet with its dark berry preserves, dark chocolate aromatics, and silky tannins. Cabernet made from grapes coveted by 100-point winemakers, offered to you at prices that would make those winemakers balk. 

    These vines now climb skyward out of the red ash and rocky, gravelly loam about a five-minute drive from Andy Erickson’s home base, from within the famous Coombsville caldera—the empty magma chamber of an ancient collapsed volcano—is “home to the site of an infamous vine-running story that should have ended in a fed-bust for the ages!” Halpin told us. And we listened for a time… patiently

    “So, this guy figures it’ll be too hard to land vine cuttings from a place like Château Margaux, but he finds a guy who knows a guy who was already growing cuttings that came from a famous Left Bank site. He arranges to have these vines driven over the border, and out of 5,000 he gets 4,000 over without a hitch!” 

    “Uh, huh,” we sneak in while Halpin catches his breath. 

    “But he gets greedy. ‘I gotta have all the vines,’ he says to himself, and goes back for the last batch, but this time the border agents are wise to this guy. We’re talking Cheech and Chong’s worst nightmare!”

    “How much do these other winery’s wines go for that buy these grapes?” we asked, interrupting the story. 

    “I dunno,” shot back a flustered Halpin, before rattling off, “But the flagship is $275.”

    “And we can offer yours for...?”

    Yes! You keep interrupting! Where was I? Oh right, so, he’s being questioned by the agents, who are figuring out that not only did he ‘import’ these vines, they figured he’d brought over a bunch more. They start asking him all these questions—they are on to him. But when the agents step out of the room for a minute—” 

    “He ate the receipts!”

    “You know the story!?” moaned a defeated Halpin, “Then, you know the grape source!” he stammered. The wind—had been taken out of his sails. 

    “Don’t worry,” we assured him, “we won’t tell anyone.” Ahem.


    Knowing Halpin, he’s fuming even today as this missive now sits “read” in your inbox. This is a guy who once booked us plane tickets to Philadelphia without asking first, and who is always three steps ahead of everyone and everything. Did it feel good to know we were one step ahead of him for once? It sure as you-know-what did. If you want to know what that feels like, here’s how: Lock in any number of bottles of Halpin’s 2018 Coombsville Cabernet, and when you open your first bottle, repeat this story, only the punchline for you is: “The people on the mailing list paid $275. I paid a fraction of that. Drink up!”