VM94, JD93, WS Top 100 ⭐️ $32 Paul Hobbs "Luxuriously Polished" Cab Steal
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Originally sent to our list on October 10, 2026. Pricing and availability reflect that date — for current pricing and stock, see artisan.wine.
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A Personal Note
Dear Artisans,
Last year we sold 60 cases of the 2022 Cocodrilo Corte. It went out to a few dozen households who bought one bottle, and then came back for a case or three. I could have sold twice that number, but the allocation was gone, as only 3,000 cases of it were imported.
Then Wine Spectator published its Top 100 of 2024 and put that wine at number thirty-nine in the world, ninety-two points, marked as a Smart Buy. The people who had already emptied their racks wrote to tell me they knew.
The 2023 is even better, from what the winery calls the lowest-yielding Mendoza harvest since 1960. And we negotiated to keep the price the same.
This is not some volume Malbec value with a Cabernet splash. It is a tremendously serious Bordeaux blend built by a man who makes $400+ Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet and was on the inaugural Opus One team: 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 6% Malbec and 3% Petit Verdot. Hand-harvested with shears, with manual selection of bunches. Fifteen months in French oak, bottled unfined.
It is a no-expense-spared operation and you can taste every part of it: luxuriously textured, balanced end to end, drinkable tonight and comfortable evolving for another decade. Pour it blind against Napa Cabernet at seventy-five dollars and it is not the one anyone picks out as the cheap glass.
Jeb Dunnuck states the obvious: “This is an outstanding wine at an outstanding price point.” Vinous went 94: “This is a delicious, confidently built blend.” Suckling: “The palate is round and succulent with plush, polished tannins and voluminous, lustrous dark fruit.”
The fruit comes off Luján de Cuyo and the Valle de Uco, 60% and 40%, between about 2,800 and 4,600 feet, on alluvial soil thick with rock and gravel: vines that have to work for it. That is where the nuance in Argentine Cabernet lives, and almost nobody bothers to go looking, because Malbec pays the bills.
Paul Hobbs has been working in Argentina since the late 1980s, when he worked with Nicolás Catena. Robert Mondavi first hired him for his expertise in oak aging, and he then joined the inaugural Opus One team. He founded his own winery in 1991, and in 1999 launched his own Mendoza wines, beginning with Bramare. Robert Parker twice named him Wine Personality of the Year. Forbes called him the Steve Jobs of wine.
James Tran
Artisan Wine & Spirits
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The Accolade
Last year was No. 39 in the world.
This year is even better. No. 39
Wine Spectator Top 100 Of 2024 · 92 Points · Smart Buy
The rank and the 92 points belong to the 2022 vintage. The 2023, reviewed below, is the wine we have now.
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The Wine · VM 94 · JS 93 · JD 93
2023 Cocodrilo “Corte.”
Viña Cobos by Paul Hobbs · Luján de Cuyo & Valle de Uco, Mendoza
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Viña Cobos by Paul Hobbs Cocodrilo “Corte” 2023
Mendoza, Argentina
Cocodrilo means crocodile. The Corte is the Bordeaux blend in the range, and it is the wine Hobbs uses to show what Argentine Cabernet Sauvignon can do when somebody treats it the way Cabernet gets treated in Napa or Pauillac. Every review is below; note how often the same three words come back: velvety, polished, long.
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One Winemaker, Three Continents
Everything Else Paul Hobbs Makes That We Still Have.
Twelve wines from Mendoza, Napa, Sonoma, the Finger Lakes and Galicia. These are the last bottles of each, and the counts below are what our inventory shows today.
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All Thirteen At A Glance
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Mendoza, Argentina
Viña Cobos.
Where Paul Hobbs has worked since the late 1980s.
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Los Árboles, Valle de Uco
Viña Cobos Cabernet Franc “Chañares Estate” 2021
Mendoza, Argentina
Cabernet Franc off Chañares, one of the three estates Viña Cobos farms itself, half of it eighteen months in barrel. Suckling: “An amazing standout that contrasts beautifully with the area’s malbecs and cabernet sauvignons.” Vinous found ash, cassis, tobacco and truffle, and gave it until 2045.
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Valle de Uco, Mendoza
Viña Cobos Bramare Malbec Valle de Uco 2021
Mendoza, Argentina
Bramare is Italian for “to yearn,” lifted from Frances Mayes. Eighteen months in French oak, twenty percent new, bottled unfined. Vinous called it “a superlative, precise, ripe wine from a cool year.” Suckling: “Crushed stone and violet with blueberries… Crunchy and stony.”
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Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza
Viña Cobos Bramare Cabernet Sauvignon Luján de Cuyo 2018
Mendoza, Argentina
Eight years in and drinking right where you want it. Vinous: “blackcurrant, blackberry and ash with camphor and potent spice notes. Intense and juicy with a slick feel.” Eighteen months in barrel, 25% new. If you like the Cocodrilo, this is the same idea, with more money spent on it.
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Valle de Uco & Luján de Cuyo
Viña Cobos “Felino” Malbec 2023
Mendoza, Argentina
The way into the house, and the bottle I keep open at home on a Tuesday. Ninety-three points twice over. Nine months in barrel, only eight percent of it new, bottled unfined. The Tasting Panel: “Juicy, ripe, and ready.”
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Napa Valley & Sonoma Coast
Paul Hobbs & Crossbarn.
The wines that built the name.
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Coombsville, Napa Valley
Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon “Nathan Coombs Estate” 2019
Napa Valley, California
Five critics, none below ninety-five, and a ninety-eight from Vinous that opens “What a wine.” Three hundred and forty-four cases made. Night-harvested by hand, indigenous yeast, thirty-day maceration, eighteen months in 96% new French oak, bottled unfined and unfiltered. This is the top of the pyramid.
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Coombsville, Napa Valley
Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville 2022
Napa Valley, California
The same cool southern corner of Napa, one tier down. Twenty months in 53% new oak, with 6% Petit Verdot in the blend. Suckling: “So luscious, balanced, vivid and deep.” Wine Advocate called it “a reasonable value in the context of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon,” which from them is a standing ovation.
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Calistoga & Coombsville, Napa
Crossbarn by Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon 2021
Napa Valley, California
Five reviews, none below ninety-two, on a fifty-dollar Napa Cabernet. Night-harvested, cold-soaked five days, native yeast, thirty-day maceration, eighteen months in 13% new oak. Joe Czerwinski of Wine Advocate: “a terrific bargain.”
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Sonoma Coast · Two Vintages
Crossbarn by Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir 2022 & 2021
Sonoma Coast, California
2022: JS 94 · WA 93 · JD 92
2021: VM 93 · JS 92 · WA 91 Both vintages, both under thirty dollars, both made entirely from estate fruit. Antonio Galloni on the 2021: “I am not sure I have ever tasted a California Pinot this good for $40 a bottle.” The 2022 took 94 from Suckling, from George Menini, Cleary, Goldrock and Catherine Lindsay estates.
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Sonoma Coast, California
Crossbarn by Paul Hobbs Chardonnay 2024
Sonoma Coast, California
Fermented and raised entirely in steel with bâtonnage, no oak anywhere near it, 81% estate fruit. Five reviews and every one of them ninety or better, for twenty-four ninety-nine. Jeb Dunnuck: “A terrific value to enjoy now or over the next several years.”
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Galicia & The Finger Lakes
Further Afield.
Two projects nobody expects.
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Ribeira Sacra, Galicia, Spain
Alvaredos-Hobbs Mencía Ribeira Sacra 2020
Galicia, Spain
Made with Antonio López Fernández, whose family village of Alvaredos gives the winery its name. One hundred percent Mencía, native yeast, twelve months in barrel, 35% new, unfined and unfiltered. Wine Enthusiast made it an Editor’s Choice at ninety-five, and three Decanter panellists all reached for the word elegant.
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Seneca Lake, Finger Lakes, New York
Hillick & Hobbs Estate Seneca Lake Dry Riesling 2021
Finger Lakes, New York
Hobbs went home for this one. He grew up on his family’s fruit farm in Niagara County, and in 2013 he founded this estate on blue slate above Seneca Lake, named for his parents, Joan Hillick and Edward Hobbs. Whole-cluster pressed, stainless steel, bottled unfined. Six reviews, from 91 to 95.
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The Bottom Line
One winemaker, three continents,
thirteen wines on this page. The 2023 Cocodrilo is $32.99. If the last vintage is any guide, the people who buy one will be back for six.
Everything else Paul Hobbs makes that we have on the floor is above this note, and these are the last bottles of each: Napa Cabernet from his own Coombsville estate, a 97-point Cabernet Franc from a Viña Cobos estate in the Uco Valley, dry Riesling from the Finger Lakes named for his parents, and Mencía from Ribeira Sacra.
Cheers,
— James Tran
Artisan Wine & Spirits
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Artisan Wine & Spirits · 2495 Old Middlefield Way, Mountain View, CA 94043
Questions? Chat Live · sales@artisan.wine · 650-917-8080 |
The Artisan VIP List
Prices so low… we can’t show!
Join our VIP list to receive private sale offers with prices too low to publish, along with rare allocations.
Join The VIP List →
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