Winemaker Notes
Blend: 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot, 1% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain comes almost all from the estate on Howell Mountain and is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Malbec, 5% Petit Verdot, and the rest Merlot. It has classic Howell Mountain style in its ripe blue fruits, violets, iron, and bouquet garni-like aromatics, and its medium to full-bodied, with a rich, mouth-filling texture and outstanding length. It has another 15 years of prime drinking ahead of it.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Cade Estate combines fruit from the original vineyard and 13th Vineyard. It shows hints of pine and sage on the nose, accenting a base of ripe black cherries, while the full-bodied palate is concentrated. It's rich without being overdone, with a long, velvety finish.
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.