Winemaker Notes
Exemplifying the uniquely diverse geology and wild flora found at the ADAMVS Estate, the 2016 Quintvs is a serious wine with a seductive, mineral-laced, umami backbone. Surrounding this powerful core are aromatics and flavors of black currant, Bing cherry,wild sage, and luscious ripe plum. On the palate the wine is round, lush, and soft, yet structured and age worthy. Drink now or cellar for five to fifteen years.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
More dark currants, blackberries, spring flowers, dark chocolate, and tobacco notes dominated the nose of the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon QUINTVS and it’s a medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced wine that shows the pure, classic style of the 2016 vintage. All Cabernet brought up in 75% new French oak, it has subtle oak, a beautiful mid-palate, silky tannins, and a great, great finish. It has shut down slightly over the past year and needs 4-5 years of bottle age, but it’s a stunning wine.
Rating: 97+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Aged in 75% new French oak for 21 months, the very deep purple-black colored 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon QUINTVS gives up warm blackcurrants, crushed plums and blackberry pie with touches of wood smoke, crushed rocks, iodine, truffles, charcuterie and bay leaves. The palate is full-bodied with very firm yet ripe tannins framing the generous black fruit and earthy layers, finishing on a lingering mineral note.
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.