2023 | Hourglass Cabernet Sauvignon "Blueline" | Napa Valley | USA

The estate's signature wine — Hourglass's Blueline hillside Cabernet, 96 points.

Hourglass was established by Jeff Smith's father in 1976 and has been a Napa rising star since its first Cabernet in 1997. In 2006 the family acquired Blueline Estate, a hillside site in St. Helena planted to all five Bordeaux reds. The 2023 is 77% Cabernet Sauvignon with 12% Petit Verdot, 5% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc and 1% Malbec, raised 22 months in 80% new oak — about 990 cases. Jeb Dunnuck awarded it 96 points.

A Blueline Cabernet is polished hillside Napa with a mineral spine. Rising-star producer, hillside estate, 96 points → concentrated, layered, tensional → you're drinking serious Napa Cab.

• 77% Cabernet Sauvignon · 12% Petit Verdot · 5% Merlot · 5% Cabernet Franc · 1% Malbec
• Blueline Estate, St. Helena — Napa Valley, USA
• Hourglass — winemaker Tony Biagi
• 22 months, 80% new oak · ~990 cases · 96 pts Jeb Dunnuck

Ground coffee, wet gravel, forest fern and barrel toast winding through dramatic red and dark fruit — dark sour cherry, red plum, pomegranate and blackberry — with rich, silky tannins countered by mouthwatering acidity and the trademark Blueline minerality. Translation: a concentrated, layered hillside Cabernet — dark fruit with coffee and gravelly mineral notes over silky tannins, kept lively by real acidity. Powerful but never heavy.

A single-vineyard Napa Cabernet. Exactly the bottle for ribeye, short ribs, or a celebratory steak.