The Halpin Collector's Set 750 ml

If you’ve ever spent time in Italy’s Tuscan seaside towns you know the dreamy days of long al fresco lunches and afternoons tasting in Montalcino or Chianti. It was on one such trip, and one lunch featuring a 1990 Tignanello that set off the fireworks for our friend Halpin. Today, he runs with the Napa in-crowd and is the obsessive networker behind his eponymous label.

Halpin’s trips to Italy have taken a backseat to Napa, where running into him at the tale-end of a three-course lunch in Yountville, or indulging in his third espresso of the day at Ritual in the Oxbow Market, isn’t unusual. He’s the kind of guy who appreciates a $150 Napa Cab, but would rather spend $30, so hits Highway 29 and the Silverado Trail in search of it. Halpin learned to find immense value in great vintages that get wedged between epic vintages. He’s got a healthy stash of Bordeaux from ‘81 and ‘83, for instance.

The night we met Halpin turned into one of those terrifically long nights in Napa that make it exceptionally hard to honor 9:00am appointments the next day. The then 29-year-old fledgling computer-science geek got the Wine Access brass more sauced than we’d ever been before.

A last-minute invitation secured us seats at an intimate gathering at a winery just off Silverado Trail, south of St. Helena—a place known for their remarkable Zinfandel. There were prominent local winemakers, one distinguished journalist, one of the world’s stingiest critics, and one member of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, who did all the cooking.

Whoever Halpin was, it was clear he was the guest of honor—regaling everyone with tales of his travels to Europe as a VIP buying assistant on the dime of a major wine retailer. There were the cases of Léoville Barton he’d bought for his “future children” and a 3-liter of Château Latour that he didn’t care was corked—drank it anyway because “it was a double-magnum of Latour!” There was the lunch at Brane-Cantenac in Margaux with the entire Lurton family, and sitting next to one Lurton who owns a Third Growth Bordeaux Château, Halpin argued it, “definitely wasn’t a classed Growth.” His passion—and naiveté—had us rolling with laughter.

This upstart had clearly rubbed elbows with all the right wine people, and everything about him impressed us. So much so, that before calling it a night, we apparently offered—not quite remembering the next day—to put him on the payroll.

In the last decade, somehow, Halpin’s stories have grown more outrageous, but the story of the his eponymous label he obsessed over making one day—is the subject of this missive.

In the summer of 2017, Halpin met with winemaker Ry Richards. Armed with a small notepad and a very sharp #2 pencil, Richards jotted down the plan that would ultimately result in the first Halpin wines rolling off the bottling line. Halpin had learned more than a thing or two under our watch. Leveraging the connections he and Ry had made in Napa, the duo invested in impeccable fruit sources and culled together the first barrels of what would be called none other than—Halpin.

Presented to us (still in shiners) at Wine Access HQ in Napa, we were struck by the sheer quality, complexity, and depth of the Halpin portfolio. So much so that we offered to take the entire first year’s harvest—every bottle of Halpin, with one caveat: they would have to make wines this good, every single year.

For Halpin, this label is his story; the culmination of decades of traveling around Europe, buying the best wines, bringing them to Napa and pouring them around town, belonging to the “in-crowd” and dreaming of one day making wine himself. Thanks to Halpin, even Ry Richards is working with fruit he never dreamed of getting his hands on—a dream-turned-reality built on a lifetime investment of discovering the world’s iconic wines. For us, and more importantly, for you, it is the chance to acquire a wine that is much more than the sum of its parts.

Wine Set includes:

2015 Halpin Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($36)
From a deep ruby color comes black fruit notes, and crème-de-cassis which mingles with ripe aromas of black cherry, lingonberry jam, cinnamon, allspice, vanilla, licorice, and red and purple florals. The first sip reveals a full-bodied Napa Cabernet, with moderate tannins and a fresh lift to the wine. This Cab shows like a light-heavyweight fighter—powerful but agile, with layers of softer, wild berry fruit, like just-picked raspberry and black cherry, leading to a wonderful crushed-herb finish underscored by gentle oak notes. Absolutely delicious. Drink now-2026.

2018 Halpin Grand Reserve Chardonnay Sonoma County ($25)
Lemon gold in color. Fabulous lemon peel aromas with sweet baking spices courtesy of partial aging in 60% new French oak. Mouth-filling with zippy lemon-lime citrus notes, kiwi, and exotic vanilla spices underscored by a high-toned coriander note. Juicy, with bright acidity balanced by a creamy richness and marked by a long and subtly toasted-almond finish. A mere eight barrels were produced.

2015 Halpin Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley ($40)
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. Bold black and blue fruits on the nose, redolent of blueberry, black currant, and pomegranate, tinged with toast, tobacco leaf, allspice, and violets. With excellent length, it packs all the hallmarks of a true reserve wine, along with an elegance that will improve in the cellar. Drink now-2029.

2016 Halpin Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon ($43)
Deep, limpid ruby color.  Powerful and exotic aromas of pomegranate, boysenberry, blueberry, and black currant fruits, showing complex notes of salvia, violets, sweet spice, balsam, and vanilla. The 2016 Halpin Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon comes from top-tier vines exclusive to the Oakville AVA Dense and full-bodied, loaded with supple tannins and a fresh lift of acid to the flavors of sweet black cherries and exotic spices. Long and satin in texture, it will reward cellaring with further complexity.  Drink now-2035.

2018 Halpin Sauvignon Blanc Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County ($20)
Bright, pale lemon in color. Aromas of fresh Meyer lemon, grapefruit, and lime zest jump from the glass and lead into this fresh, light-bodied, zippy Sauvignon Blanc. Across the palate, citrus flavors continue to dominate, accented by hints of fresh green herbs and undertones of ripe tropical fruit including papaya, pineapple, and mango. A long finish begs for a second sip.