La Jota Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2011
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Product Details
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Decanter
Aromas of dark roast coffee, oiled cedar, bramble and blackberry. A delicious combination of plush fruit, energetic acidity and rusticity on the palate, with a surprisingly juicy finish. The wet conditions of 2011 instill notes of menthol and mint throughout, balanced with La Jota’s signature polish and grit. A blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 6% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot.
Drinking Window 2021 - 2031
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Wine & Spirits
While the fruit is ripe, floral and red, tha tannins have the blackness of creosote, lending the wine power and density without feeling aggressive. Decant it to take on the char of grilled lamb chops.
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James Suckling
Lots of dark-fruit and tar character on the nose and palate. Full body with silky tannins and a dark-chocolate, berry and mineral undertone. A little more subdued than the 2010 but outstanding. Needs two or three years to soften: Try in 2016.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot aged in 90% new French oak. Winemaker Christopher Carpenter, who is resurrecting this estate to its glory days of the early nineties, has hit pay dirt with this 2011. More charming than one normally expects of a Howell Mountain Cabernet, it possesses sweet tannin, low acidity, and lots of blueberry and black currant fruit intermixed with licorice, underbrush and foresty notes. Medium-bodied and approachable, this endearing 2011 is best drunk over the next decade.
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The wines of La Jota have deep roots in Napa Valley. Back in 1888, winemaking pioneer W.S. Keyes planted some of the first vines on Howell Mountain, and 10 years later his contemporary, Fredrick Hess, built a stone winery and established La Jota Vineyard Co., named for its location on the Mexican parcel Rancho La Jota. Both men won medals for their Howell Mountain wines in the Paris Exposition of 1900.
Today, La Jota Vineyard Co. proudly carries on this great legacy with its small-production mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Chardonnay. All La Jota wines are sourced from the winery’s estate and from nearby W.S. Keyes Vineyard, and they capture the intense fruit and mineral complexity of these cool-climate origins.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Today Cabernet Sauvignon is the star of this part of Napa’s rugged, eastern hills, but Zinfandel was responsible for giving the Howell Mountain growing area its original fame in the late 1800s.
Winemaking in Howell Mountain was abandoned during Prohibition, and wasn’t reawakened until the arrival of Randy Dunn, a talented winemaker famous for the success of Caymus in the 1970s and 1980s. In the early eighties, he set his sights on the Napa hills and subsequently astonished the wine world with a Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. Shortly thereafter Howell Mountain became officially recognized as the first sub-region of Napa Valley (1983).
With vineyards at 1,400 to 2,000 feet in elevation, they predominantly sit above the fog line but the days in Howell Mountain remain cooler than those in the heart of the valley, giving the grapes a bit more time on the vine.
The Howell Mountain AVA includes 1,000 acres of vineyards interspersed by forestlands in the Vaca Mountains. The soils, shallow and infertile with good drainage, are volcanic ash and red clay and produce highly concentrated berries with thick skins. The resulting wines are full of structure and potential to age.
Today Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petite Sirah thrive in this sub-appellation, as well as its founding variety, Zinfandel.