William Hill Winery, now “Estate”, is one of those Napa Valley wineries that doesn’t get a lot of buzz but constantly produces very good wines at affordable prices. Specializing in Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from vineyards in Carneros and the Stags Leap District, the winery is now owned by Fortune Brands. Although estate grown, the wines are made in sufficient quantities to be widely available in most U.S. states.
William Hill Winery, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2000 ($22) – Garnet in color with aromas of black cherry and sage. In the mouth, this wine is rich in texture with black cherry & currant fruit flavors finishing with black pepper and plush tannins. I think this wine will still be at it’s peak for another year or two. It’s throwing some sediment, so you should decant. A very nice value in Napa Cab.
13.5% ABV
Natural cork
Score: 88
Tim–
I typically shy away from 2000 Napa Valley Cabs based on the poor weather season experienced there and a couple of questionable bottles I had. Am I missing out on a good vintage?
Generally speaking 2000 in Napa was bad but, as with any “poor” vintage, there were some wines that offer quite nice value. For example, I know of a few wineries that declassified their mountain appellation fruit into their “Napa” wines that greatly improved those. As you can tell by this note, I liked the Hill, so my advice is to do some research and try a few of the 2000’s. I’ll post about this a bit more over the weekend.
Thanks, Pat!
It would be interesting to see how the Hill 2000 and Hill 2001 compare. I imagine the 2001 could still be maturing, but haven’t tried either one. The “charts” imply that these would be very different wines.
Sounds like a good idea, Karl. I’ll try to find a bottle of the ’01 and post my notes here. Most people think that there is not much vintage variation in Napa Valley wines but I bet there would be a noticeable difference between the 2000 and the ’01.
We tried William Hill Merlot 2000 last night and the wine was very good. We are surprised that this wine is under $25.00. Outstanding wine.