Winemaker Notes
2022 Howell Mountain sings, even at this young age, with suavity and soulfulness. The hallmarks Dunn admires vintage after vintage of their Howell Mountain bottling are on full display: toasted cumin, a slatey mineral edge, and unfurling layers of density and complexity. Grippy yet somehow ethereal, velvety tannins reverberate around a rich core of red and black fruit, taut yet lifted by violets and wild mountain herbs. Exceptionally selective blending was required for this vintage of Howell to showcase the challenging growing season without sacrificing any power or prestige. 2022 Howell is a reminder of how great sites and wines can prevail even in the most trying circumstances.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This minerally, earthy wine is highly impressive, with aromas of black and red currants, wet stones, bay laurel, bitter chocolate, dried flowers and walnuts. The palate is seamlessly balanced, showing depth of fruit, melting tannins and a silken, rounded mouthfeel that has no hard edges. Firm, mouthwatering finish. This is drinking very well now, but can age for decades. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Dunn's 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is the first vintage in a while that didn't get 100% new French oak—it's just 84%. Subtle, cedary oak frames bold cherry and blueberry fruit on the nose of this medium- to full-bodied wine. It's bigger-feeling than the Napa bottling, despite being lower in alcohol (13.9%). Round but structured, firm but silky, with undertones of crushed stone and pencil shavings on the lingering finish, it's a particularly strong effort.
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Vinous
The 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain offers a striking interplay of vintage 2022 ripeness and Howell Mountain savoriness. Dried herbs, menthol, licorice, incense and blood orange stain the palate up front before beams of tannin punctuate the harmonious, expressive finish. The 2022 is exotic and unusually lush, but also full of character. I look forward to seeing how this ages. The Howell Mountain is clearly among the finest wines of the year.
Rating: 95+
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.