2021 Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard
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Tasting notes
It’s great to see Paul Hobbs’ Beckstoffer To Kalon bottling back after the fires of 2020. The nose is pure, gloriously typical Cabernet Sauvignon with crunchy cassis, edged in graphite and a hint of blackcurrant leaf. It’s pure and bright, the 85% new French oak (20 months) effortlessly integrated with the concentrated fruit. There’s a lovely bite to the palate, with mouthwatering acidity that drives through the powerful core and balances the drying grip of tannins. Intense and impressive, everything is working beautifully together here – a wine that is more than worthy of this unarguably iconic vineyard.
Critic scores
Jeb Dunnuck
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
A very solid and intense wine with polished and integrated tannins that give tension and length. It’s full-bodied and reserved, suggesting greatness and excellent length. Goes on for minutes. Juicy and gorgeous. Tight at the end. Try this from 2027, but it’s already drinkable.
Sourced from a single block and 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is impressively complex and savory on the nose, with aromas reminiscent of black cherries, mint, loamy earth, vanilla and black olives. Full-bodied and plush, this richly textural wine delivers balanced concentration and a long, velvety finish. Complex, harmonious and elegant, it's a beauty. Reading over my notes and recalling the wine, I wonder if I may have underrated it.
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard ratchets up the intensity, and this beauty just about jumps out of the glass with its incredible bouquet of cr me de cassis, flowery incense, exotic spices, smoked tobacco, and loamy earth. It's full-bodied, incredibly concentrated, and opulent, yet still just dances across the palate with no sensation of weight or heaviness. A lesson in true greatness in wine, this pure, seamless, flawlessly balanced 2021 will blow you away any time over the coming 20-25 years.
About the producer
Paul Hobbs is one of California wine’s biggest names. Twice named Wine Personality of the Year by Robert Parker, he joined Robert Mondavi in 1977, worked at Opus One and Simi before setting up his eponymous winery in 1991.