2015 HALL Cabernet Sauvignon Jack's Masterpiece

The very deep purple-black colored 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Jack's Masterpiece reveals the most stunning perfume of violets, chocolate box, star anise, rose hip tea and lavender over a core of kirsch, blackberry pie, warm plums and cassis plus a waft of allspice. Full-bodied and delivering intense fresh black and red fruits in the mouth, the palate maintains a lot of grace and finesse in spite of the the obvious power, with beautifully plush tannins and a very long, perfumed finish.

The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Jack's Masterpiece is one of the more broad, expansive and sexy wines in the lineup. Offering a blood of Cabernet like bouquet of crème de cassis, chocolate, graphite and white flowers, it's opulent and heavenly on the palate, with a huge midpalate and finish. It's blockbuster style beauty that does everything right. One of the eye-opening tastings while working on this report was the lineup from Kathryn Hall’s estate located in St. Helena. There’s a wealth of wines here, yet they all have deep, concentrated, pure profiles as well as singular characters. You could pretty much randomly select from this lineup and be guaranteed to have a brilliant wine. Hats off to winemaker Steve Leveque. All the 2016s, and the majority of the 2015s, were tasted as barrel samples.

The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Jack's Masterpiece comes across as remarkably harmonious for a young Hall Cabernets. There is no shortage of depth or intensity in the Jack's - far from it - and yet the tannins are nearly buried by the sheer plushness of the fruit. That is even more surprising given that most of the fruit in this vintage is from Diamond Mountain. Black fruit, graphite, smoke, menthol and licorice meld into the huge, dramatic finish.