Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/580744
78 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 { cellar view } OUR PANEL Paul Hobbs, owner and winemaker of Paul Hobbs, and Marcela Pinzon, West Region Manager for Paul Hobbs Imports. Justin Prairie, Wine Director at Capo, Santa Monica. Elizabeth Huettinger, Wine Director at Otium, Downtown Los Angeles. Anthony Dias Blue, Editor-in-Chief of The SOMM Journal. Karen Moneymaker, Senior Editor of The SOMM Journal. PAUL HOBBS GREW UP ON A WORKING FARM IN UPSTATE NEW YORK where he learned about the profound impact of terroir on agriculture. He moved on to California to work for Robert Mondavi and then Simi. During those years he honed his meticulous and precise winemaking skills as well as his uncanny ability to scope out the best parts of the best vineyards. Hobbs's influence has spread throughout the wine world. He is credited with helping create the premium Argentine wine industry and bringing modern tech - niques to Cahors in France, the original home of Malbec. But Paul Hobbs has been called "the Steve Jobs of wine" mainly because of his remarkable California wines. One of the crown jewels of his California oeuvre is a stunning Cabernet Sauvignon made from the best part of Andy Beckstoffer's Dr. Crane vineyard in Napa Valley. On August 18, 2015, our Los Angeles panel sat down with Paul Hobbs to taste a seven-vintage vertical of this great wine. The Doctor Is In OUR LOS ANGELES PANEL EXAMINES A VERTICAL OF PAUL HOBBS' BECKSTOFFER DR. CRANE VINEYARD CABERNET by Anthony Dias Blue