CADE Howell Mountain Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2015
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker
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Jeb Dunnuck
Also bottled under screwcap, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve checks in as a blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Petit Verdot that spent 20 months in new French oak. It offers a big, sweet nose of crème de cassis, blueberries, lavender, bay leaf and hints of earth. Deep, layered and concentrated, with sensational purity of fruit, it's a perfectly balanced 2015 that has everything you could want from this vintage. Like the Howell Mountain estate, it's tannic and in need of 4-5 years of cellaring.
Rating: 96+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As for the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, this is young and promising with intense crème de cassis and blackberry fruit, licorice, forest floor and earth. It is a blend of 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Petit Verdot. Powerful (15.6% natural alcohol), the wine is neither hot, nor rustic. Its plush tannins and long finish suggest a future of a good 20+ years, even though it is already approachable. 95+ points
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CADE Estate Winery Supports Farmworkers. For every bottle of CADE Estate Cabernet Sauvignon sold, $1 will be donated to the Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation.
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.