2022 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 2022, 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 here.

The guiding hand behind the wine belongs to Dick Peterson, one of the greatest legends of California fine wine. He succeeded André Tchelistcheff at Beaulieu Vineyard, crafting BV’s flagship bottles during the winery’s heyday. That work made him one of Napa Valley’s most influential vintners—and led him to become the original consulting winemaker at Screaming Eagle. His daughter, Heidi Peterson Barrett, would go on to make the cult Cab’s first vintages.

As consulting winemaker, Peterson gives each Hawk and Horse Cabernet a no-expense-spared treatment in the cellar, in line with the estate’s mission to craft some of the finest Cabernet in California. The 2022—97% Cabernet Sauvignon with a splash of Cabernet Franc—was handled in an old-world, minimal-intervention style and aged in 80% new French oak, softening the burly mountain tannins and intense fruit into a beautiful, cohesive whole.