Our first impression as we entered the Hall Winery tasting room in St. Helena was “Wow!” How different this winery was from the two other family wineries we had visited earlier in
n Calistoga. For a family-owned winery, the Hall tasting room is very impressive. Obviously a lot of money and planning went into making this tasting room very chic and classy. Craig and Kathryn Hall, both with successful careers in the business world, own the winery.
The tasting fee is $10 for a taste of four wines. For an additional $5 you can taste the top-of-the-line reserve Cabernet. The best of the four wines we tasted was the Sauvignon Blanc. It is pricey at $20 but we thought it was delightful and a very good wine. The three reds, two Merlots, and a Cabernet are certainly decent wines but out of our price bracket.
By coincidence, the day we posted this entry, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Friday wine section also had a review of the Hall tasting room. If you read the Chronicle article, you will see that we didn’t have the same experience as the Chronicle reporter.
The tasting room although beautiful throughout, did have a corporate feel to it. We also felt we had somewhat of a hard sell to join the Hall wine club. We didn’t join but our host made sure we took home a wine club application that she had signed.
The Hall winery also has an additional facility in Rutherford off the Silverado Trail. Visitors need an appointment to visit that facility.
The Good: Beautiful tasting room, art work, nice picnic area
The Bad: $10 tasting fee. Too much “join the wine club” information.
