Open: 10:00am-5:30pm. Note that Hall has 2 locations: this location in St. Helena on Hwy 29 (open 10-5:30), and the Rutherford location east of Silverado Trail that is open by appointment only.
Appt required? No
Last barlinwine.com visit: 2012 (May 16, 2012 Itinerary)
Directions:
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Tasting:
I’m sure most tasting room employees roll their eyes when visitors stumble in 20 minutes before closing. To the credit of the folks at Hall, I didn’t see any eye rolls, but I also may have been too tipsy to notice.
As the last stop on a whopping 9-stop day (albeit one where the dump bucket got plenty of use), I will not pretend to have an authoritative take on the wine but I’ll do my best. Hall offers two lines of wine: the “Napa Valley Collection” which are the widely distributed versions of their Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet, and “Kathryn Hall” Cabernet, and the “Artisan Collection” which are winery exclusives. They have tastings geared toward each collection, and since I don’t fly to California to try and buy wine I can pick up at Binny’s in Chicago, I elected to do the Artisan tasting.
The tasting started with the “T Bar T Ranch” Sauvignon Blanc, which in customary fashion I elected to skip. Instead I started with the 2008 “Napa River Ranch” Merlot. I thought this wine was just okay and pretty tight still. I dumped most of it and moved to the 2008 “Darwin” Proprietary Red blend. This wine, which was 95% Syrah in 2008, was pretty good and a step up from the Merlot. My host moved to a bonus wine from the standard tasting next, the 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet. Not good, and I think it was poured to make the following wine, the 2009 “Jack’s Masterpiece” Cabernet stand out more. It did stand out, but it wasn’t amazing. The best wine of the visit turned out to be the final wine, the 2009 Napa Valley Malbec. I always enjoy a good Malbec, and with the rise in prominence of Argentinian Malbec in the past several years we’re beginning to see more of this bottled on its own in Napa. While not as good as some of the better Napa Malbecs I’ve had (Hope & Grace comes to mind), this was still a good effort and I took a bottle with me.
Overall, this was a decent tasting and a nice room. I’ll look to return earlier in the day at some point (or try Hall’s more exclusive Rutherford tasting room) on a future visit.
As the last stop on a whopping 9-stop day (albeit one where the dump bucket got plenty of use), I will not pretend to have an authoritative take on the wine but I’ll do my best. Hall offers two lines of wine: the “Napa Valley Collection” which are the widely distributed versions of their Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet, and “Kathryn Hall” Cabernet, and the “Artisan Collection” which are winery exclusives. They have tastings geared toward each collection, and since I don’t fly to California to try and buy wine I can pick up at Binny’s in Chicago, I elected to do the Artisan tasting.
The tasting started with the “T Bar T Ranch” Sauvignon Blanc, which in customary fashion I elected to skip. Instead I started with the 2008 “Napa River Ranch” Merlot. I thought this wine was just okay and pretty tight still. I dumped most of it and moved to the 2008 “Darwin” Proprietary Red blend. This wine, which was 95% Syrah in 2008, was pretty good and a step up from the Merlot. My host moved to a bonus wine from the standard tasting next, the 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet. Not good, and I think it was poured to make the following wine, the 2009 “Jack’s Masterpiece” Cabernet stand out more. It did stand out, but it wasn’t amazing. The best wine of the visit turned out to be the final wine, the 2009 Napa Valley Malbec. I always enjoy a good Malbec, and with the rise in prominence of Argentinian Malbec in the past several years we’re beginning to see more of this bottled on its own in Napa. While not as good as some of the better Napa Malbecs I’ve had (Hope & Grace comes to mind), this was still a good effort and I took a bottle with me.
Overall, this was a decent tasting and a nice room. I’ll look to return earlier in the day at some point (or try Hall’s more exclusive Rutherford tasting room) on a future visit.
Recommended wine: I enjoyed the Malbec at my tasting and again later when we brought a bottle of it to Mustard's Grill.
Ratings (out of 5):
 WINE | 4.00 |  TASTING ROOM | 4.00 |
 ATMOSPHERE | 4.25 |  VALUE | 4.00 |
 OVERALL | 4.06 | ||
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