Winemaker Notes
The 2019 Hershey is rich and inviting reflecting the vintage’s softer acidity. The aromas show off layers of black cherry, roasted plum, dark chocolate, and baking spice. At its core lies the classic Hershey minerality, lively acidity, and fine grain tannins. The entry is creamy and expands across the palate with flavors of plums, Montmorency cherry, and dark chocolate that meld with hints of roasted coffee bean, tobacco, and mountain sage. The wine is sumptuous now but will reward the serious collector for decades to come.
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Hershey Vineyard is just about pure perfection and is another heavenly Cabernet from this team. Gorgeous red, blue, and black fruits, spice, smoked tobacco, and dried herbs give way to a full-bodied, deep, rich, powerful 2019 that has velvety tannins and a rounded, opulent mouthfeel. It's not as structured or tannic as the Lotus, but this will nevertheless benefit from another 3-4 years of bottle age, and while it's already impossible to resist, it should evolve for 30+ years.
-
James Suckling
Subtle aromas of blueberries, boysenberries and black olives, then violets and lilacs. Bark, too. Medium-to full-bodied with extremely fine tannins that run the length of the wine. Compact and so long. Seamless. Class. Needs four or five years to open.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From a 35-acre estate site on Howell Mountain near the Jackson Family's W.S. Keyes Vineyard, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Hershey Vineyard features complex aromas of barrel toast (the single-vineyard offerings here all see 100% new French oak), blackberries and blueberries, plus hints of pine, sage and bay. It's richly concentrated, even a touch muscular, with a long, tannic finish. Rating :97+
-
Wine Spectator
A brawny, burly Cabernet, with a seriously grippy structure supporting a core of roasted alder and cedar, steeped black currant, bitter plum and singed bay leaf. Gains tang and drive on the finish, thanks to sanguine and iron notes. A mountain man wine.
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.