Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from tiny yields and a hotter vintage, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a much more up-front, sweetly fruited, sexy wine compared to the more brooding, Bordeaux-like 2014, although there’s no shortage of structure and tannins in this 2015. Giving up a great nose of kirsch liqueur, blackcurrants, sandalwood, sweet tobacco, and exotic spices, this beauty hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a layered, elegant texture, beautiful overall balance, and a great finish. There’s just a subtle firmer edge to the tannins here, which is common in the vintage, that I suspect will always be there, but the fruit is beautifully pure, it has remarkable sweetness (ripeness, not residual sugar), great balance, and it’s just a singular wine in the lineup. It’s going to drink well for 30+ years. Best after 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The result of a small-yield vintage (frost, shatter, then hail, all before the end of May), Dunn's 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain boasts a gentle cedary overlay and lovely cherry scents—it still shows some fresh-fruit character to go with hints of dried herbs. It's medium-bodied, smooth and silky. While still firm enough to go another decade at least, it's starting to really drink well.
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Vinous
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a classic Dunn wine all the way. Graphite, dried herbs, menthol, lavender and new leather open first. Time in the glass brings out more of a red-toned fruit character, with strong floral overtones. Red cherry/plum fruit, blood orange, cedar and mint take shape with some coaxing. There's plenty of supporting mountain tannin, but it is beautifully woven into the wine's fabric.
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Wine Spectator
A bright and juicy style, with lots of freshly crushed loganberry, boysenberry and black currant fruit jumping to the fore, followed by briar and sweet tobacco notes on the finish. Solid grip throughout. This is really coiled for the long haul. Best from 2022 through 2040.
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.