Winemaker Notes
The 2014 CADE Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain is soft, supple, open-knit and a real beauty. The color is a healthy, deep purple and the wine full-bodied, rich with mulberry, black cherry, dark chocolate, blackcurrant and blackberry fruit, graphite and spice – insanely approachable now given it’s silky personality but capable of evolving for up to 15 – 20 years, if you’re patient enough.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of stones, dark tea and blackberries. Full to medium body, polished tannins and a juicy finish. Very pretty and flavorful. Drink in 2020.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate from their Howell Mountain vineyards is a blend of 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Merlot and Petit Verdot. A beauty, with mulberry, blackcurrant and blackberry fruit, graphite and spice, the wine cuts a broad swath across the palate with no hard edges. The color is a healthy, deep purple and the wine full-bodied, rich, and while drinkable now, is capable of evolving for up to 15-20 years.
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.