Kathryn Hall: Born of the Vine

The winery owner's road back to the wine country was long and winding

A political activist at Berkeley, an attorney fighting gender discrimination in the workplace, a Dallas mayoral candidate and a U.S Ambassador to Austria under the Clinton Administration. It isn’t the typical profile of a Napa Valley winery proprietor, but it’s precisely the career trajectory Kathryn Walt Hall followed on her way back to wine country. “I always knew I’d end up back there,” says Ms. Hall, who grew up in the Bay area before attending boarding school in Europe. During her time abroad, her father uprooted the family from the city for Redwood Valley, Mendocino, about 150 miles northwest of Napa.

Ms. Hall recalls those days warmly. “It was a big change of life for all of us and we ended up loving it,” she says. Her family soon realized they were home. The Walt family still owns 63 acres of cabernet sauvignon, gamay, zinfandel and sauvignon blanc vineyards in the Redwood Valley and over the years have sold their grapes to wineries such as Fetzer, Parducci and Beringer. Her father introduced her to the life of a farmer.

Her career journey comprises a life most only dream of, from a political activist as an undergraduate at University of California Berkeley in the early 1970s, to law school at University of California Hastings, to the start of her public career as assistant city attorney for Berkeley. She later joined Safeway Stores, where she had an unprecedented opportunity to develop and administer one of the nation’s first and largest affirmative action programs. “In those days, civil rights law was pretty new, so it was an exciting time to be involved,” Ms. Hall says.

Soon, she became a lobbyist for Safeway, which took her and her family to Dallas, Texas, where she worked as an attorney and businesswoman. Along the way, she also made a run for mayor of Dallas in 1991. “I lost the race, but felt a victory coming in second in a field of five,” she reminisces. The run for office and commitment to social issues, along with her eternal optimism, kept her confident that when one door shuts, another one opens. “The run was exhilarating and I got to know people who ended up in The White House,” she recalls.

With fluent German and French in her repertoire, Ms. Hall appealed to “everyone I knew who might know somebody who knew somebody” to seek President Clinton’s appointment t’U.S. Ambassador to Austria. “Clinton was great about putting women in positions of ambassador, a previously male-dominated area,” Ms. Hall says. She held this post from 1997 to 2001, during which time she was instrumental in bringing restitution to dozens of families whose property had by “Aryanized” during World War II. “We were able to bring some measure of justice and to recognize part of the tragedy for these families,” she says, tearing up a bit. “As Americans, we took a very strong moral position and that’s what I am most proud of.”

But wine country was still calling. In anticipation of her return from Austria, she and husband Craig Hall, a successful entrepreneur, purchased their first vineyard in Napa Valley, the 39-acre Sacrashe Vineyard in Rutherford, in 1995. Upon their return in 2001, the property was managed well, but the grapes went to other iconic wineries such as Silver Oak and Duckhorn. Now, it was Ms. Hall’s time to come back to her roots and take over as proprietor, producing her own wine. They unveiled their first winery on the Sacrashe vineyards in 2005, dedicated to making single vineyard and limited production wines, most only sold to wine club members or at the tasting room.

Today, the Hall estate vineyards span more than 500 acres, growing the classic Bordeaux varietals cabernet sauvignon, merlot and sauvignon blanc under the tutelage of winemaker Steve Leveque. In 2003, the Hall’s acquired the historic Bergfeld Winery in St. Helena; a recent renovation unveiled Hall Winery St. Helena, California's first winery to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification.

Fortunate for wine lovers, there are four Hall wines in the general market place, available both at retailers and on restaurant wine lists: the Kathryn Hall Cabernet Sauvignon, two Hall Merlots and a Hall Sauvignon Blanc. “I always knew I’d come back to the wine business – I just didn’t know what the route back would be,” Ms. Hall says. “Now, I’m doing what I want to be doing. It’s a real labor of love.”

Kathryn Walt Hall with her husband, Craig Hall. 

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