2006 Hall cabernet Napa Valley

Back in 2010 I picked up three bottles of the highly-rated 2006 Hall Cabernet Napa Valley (WS 94 points). At the time I was not familiar with Hall, nor had I tried this wine, but I had read about in Wine Spectator and my friendly neighborhood wine merchant was very high on this wine. So I bowed to the sales pressure, paying $35/btl at the time. Last week I finally pulled a bottle from the cellar to have with our grilled steak dinner. Wow! What a terrific wine. It has prominent cocoa/mocha aromas and just smells absolutely succulent. It has layers of flavors with dried cherry and dusty earth most prominent, giving way to a lingering licorice essence at the end. One of the best cabs I’ve had in a long time. Though not quite as good as Plumpjack (my personal favorite cabernet), this is nonetheless a pretty darn good cab. And, considering I only paid $35, it is all the more enjoyable. Unfortunately, I now have only two bottles of this left in the cellar. I will try to save them but it will be difficult to restrain myself now that I know how good this wine is.