Winemaker Notes
On the nose are aromas of cola, blueberry, red cherry, cocoa nibs, baking spices, and dried cranberries, followed by flavors of boysenberry, black cherry, elderberry, dark chocolate, clove, and licorice. It finishes with bramble, amaretto, and dried blue/black fruits. This wine has a classic Howell Mountain structure and tannin — big and bold but balanced in approach. The cooler vintage produced wines with higher perceived acidity and exceptional red fruit flavors and aromas.
Blend: 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Petit Verdot, 5% Merlot, 3% MalbecProfessional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate is even better, with a stunning nose of black and blue fruits as well as iron, black olive tapenade, and subtle herbal nuances. Pure 2019 goodness on the palate, it’s full-bodied, has ripe, polished tannins, a great mid-palate, and one heck of a finish. It’s not for those looking for old school Claret, but it brings beautiful richness and depth and will shine for at least 10-12 years as well.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Cade Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is blended of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot and 3% Malbec. Deep garnet-purple in color, it charges out of the glass with vibrant black cherry preserves, wild blueberries and mulberries scents, giving way to a core of cassis and star anise plus a waft of chocolate box. Full-bodied, concentrated and packed with bright black fruits, it has a fine-grained texture and long, energetic finish.
Rating: 94+ -
Wine Spectator
This is packed with steeped plum and blackberry fruit paste notes mixed with tar, roasted apple wood and warm earth. A racy savory stripe is nicely buried through the finish, where a violet echo lingers. Best from 2024 through 2036.
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.