Duckhorn Howell Mountain Red Wine 2004
-
Enthusiast
Wine
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Beginning with the 2004 vintage, we are pleased to return to our roots and will once again be releasing this sought-after bottling as our Howell Mountain Napa Valley Red Wine. What's in a name? A lot. This new name will give us enhanced freedom to create the best blend possible each vintage (without worrying about percentages) from the four Bordeaux varietals grown on our Stout and Candlestick Ridge estate vineyards. We believe this approach offers us greater latitude to capture the flavorful diversity of this one-of-a-kind winegrowing region.
This Napa Valley Red Wine reflects the power and intensity of its rugged, high elevation terroir, displaying excellent structure, strong tannins and a complex undercurrent of earthy minerality. Featuring extracted aromas of dark chocolate, mulled fruit and spice, this robust wine also offers savory hints of porcini and soy. On the palate, mouth-filling flavors of blackberry, black currant, mocha and menthol are accentuated by hints of lavender, graphite, herbs and sweet oak.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Almost entirely Merlot, with a few drops of other Bordeaux varieties, this Howell Mountain red screams for time in the cellar. The tannins bite and dog the mouth through the long, astringent finish. But chew on it for a while and you hit a deep core of blackberries and currants, and the more the wine warms up in the glass, the more impressive it gets. Cellar until 2010, and it should reward for years after.
Other Vintages
2012-
Panel
Tasting -
Wong
Wilfred -
Spectator
Wine -
Enthusiast
Wine -
Spirits
Wine &
-
Guide
Connoisseurs'
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Guide
Connoisseurs'
Founded by Dan and Margaret Duckhorn in 1976, Duckhorn Vineyards has been crafting classic Napa Valley wines for nearly 40 years. This winemaking tradition has grown to include seven meticulously farmed Estate vineyards, located throughout the various microclimates of the Napa Valley. Focused on quality and consistency, these Estate vineyards are an essential element in making wines of distinction. Pioneering and perfecting Merlot as a premium varietal, Duckhorn Vineyards now makes several elegant Merlot and distinctive Cabernet Sauvignon bottlings that showcase its premium vineyard sites. Duckhorn Vineyards has been named one of the “Top 100 Wineries” in the world eight times by Wine & Spirits, and the 2014 Duckhorn Vineyards Napa Valley Merlot Three Palms Vineyard was named the “2017 Wine of the Year,” topping Wine Spectator’s annual list of the world’s “Top 100 Wines.”
Undoubtedly proving its merit over and over, Napa Valley is a now a leading force in the world of prestigious red wine regions. Though Cabernet Sauvignon dominates Napa Valley, other red varieties certainly thrive here. Important but often overlooked include Merlot and other Bordeaux varieties well-regarded on their own as well as for their blending capacities. Very old vine Zinfandel represents an important historical stronghold for the region and Pinot noir is produced in the cooler southern parts, close to the San Pablo Bay.
Perfectly situated running north to south, the valley acts as a corridor, pulling cool, moist air up from the San Pablo Bay in the evenings during the hot days of the growing season, which leads to even and slow grape ripening. Furthermore the valley claims over 100 soil variations including layers of volcanic, gravel, sand and silt—a combination excellent for world-class red wine production.