Winemaker Notes
Blend: 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Malbec, 9% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Moving to the two flagship releases, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot, and the rest Malbec) is another inky hued release from this team and offers a thrilling nose of blueberries, black cherries, iron, cedar pencil, and bouquet garni. These carry to a full-bodied wine with beautiful mid-palate density, a soft, expansive texture, building tannins, and a gorgeous finish. Ranking with the top handful of wines in the vintage, it's going to evolve gracefully for 20-25 years or more.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
A blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot and 5% Malbec, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve displays a deep garnet-purple color and notes of blackcurrant cordial, plum pudding, dried mulberries and mincemeat pie with touches of Indian spices, chargrill, dried Mediterranean herbs and charcoal. Full-bodied, the palate is chock-full of black fruit preserves flavors with an herbal lift and a grainy texture plus just enough freshness, finishing on a lingering smoked-meat note. Rating: 95+?
-
Wine Spectator
Lushly ripe, with açaí berry, boysenberry and plum compote notes rolling through, supported by hints of bramble, licorice snap and roasted apple wood, although the fruit easily absorbs them all. The long finish lets the fruit drip and drip, with well-embedded acidity giving it all the support it needs for balance. Great for the hedonist crowd. Best from 2023 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.