Winemaker Notes
Right from the get-go excitement is created. The purity of color in a wafting rich complex of aromas entice and compel one to take the first taste. Such a plush nose is very inviting. Up front the Forman identity of spice, cedar and violet perfume is so evident. All of the four varieties seem to be screaming for recognition and indeed they get it in this one. Mouth filling flavors create a very pleasing, exiting, and powerful impression. This is pretty dense stuff but with delicious complexity as well. The balance of fruit, wood and bouquet is incredible. This is like a young athlete ready to perform, it’s very alive and will win many races as it develops. A keeper they say.
Blend: 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc, 6% Petite Verdot, 3% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon is silky and elegant, with lovely aromatic presence and impeccable balance. Sweet tobacco, cedar, dried flowers and mint all give this mid-weight Cabernet lovely complexity and nuance. The 2018 has shut down since I tasted it last year, but that is not surprising given the style here. Today, bright acids give the 2018 energy, tension and a good deal of precision. Those qualities should help the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon age well over the coming decades.
Best After 2028. Rating : 96+
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Wine Spectator
Offers a nicely rendered core of black and red currant fruit laced with hints of licorice root and walnut husk. The structure is nicely inlaid, giving this a supple feel overall. A suave note of alder smoke curls around the finish, where a late flash of iron lingers. Drink now through 2040. 2,196 cases made.
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.