Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Proprietary Red Obsidian Estate is a blend of 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Petit Verdot, 9% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot and 3% Malbec from their estate vineyards. It is aged 22 months in 90% new French oak and is one of their larger cuvées of 720 cases. This is also an impressive, but backward wine with a dense purple color, loads of crushed rock in the nose of blackberry and cassis fruit intermixed with white flowers, licorice and forest floor. It is multidimensional, full-bodied, pure, dense and will benefit from 2-3 years of cellaring, while keeping for 20-25.
Rating: 94+ -
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain Estate Obsidian is the estate cuvee (from Howell Mountain, not to be confused with Obsidian Vineyard) and offers a ripe, sexy style in its blackberry and currant fruits, white truffle, and chalky, dried earth aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied, nicely balanced, with ripe, polished tannin, solid mid-palate depth, and a great finish, it can be drunk anytime over the coming 15-20 years.
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James Suckling
A linear and finely crafted red with iodine, berry and currant character. Some chili powder, too. Medium to full body, fine and silky tannins and a flavorful finish. Give it three of four years of bottle age. Try in 2021.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
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.