Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A wine with spice, blueberry and blackberry. Mint and mineral character too. Full-bodied and structured plus powerful tannins and a long blueberry finish. Needs at least four or five years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain, which comes 100% from their estate vineyards, is slightly higher in alcohol at 14.3% (despite the label saying 13.9%). Soft, opaque purple-colored, with a ripe, full-bodied mouthfeel and notes of graphite, spring flowers, blueberry and blackberry fruit, it is full-bodied, luscious, and ideal for drinking over the next 12-15 years.
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Vinous
Dunn's 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a dark, powerful wine. The 2011 possesses tremendous density and tons of pure power. It is also more savory than most Dunn wines, so readers should expect a fair amount of herbal notes. Grilled herbs, scorched earth, licorice, lavender and strong earthy accents abound. The 2011 remains rich, deep and very young. It is one of the most backward Cabernets I tasted for this report. When the 2011 was young, my impression was that it was relatively open for a Dunn wine, today though, the 2011 is decidedly reticent. Harvest took place between October 27 and November 2, just before the last rains of the season on Howell Mountain.
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.