Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Jeb Dunnuck
The 2006 Fortification is more perfumed and graceful while still bringing serious intensity and depth. It offers a fabulous bouquet of chocolate covered blueberries, cherries, cigar wrapper, cedarwood, and candied figs. This full-bodied, opulent, layered, incredibly nuanced fortified wine is like a mix between a vin doux naturel from the Roussillon and a mature vintage Port.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2006 Fortification sports a medium tawny color and rip-roaring nose of baked black cherries, dried mulberries, hoisin, blackcurrant cordial and fig paste with hints of star anise, chocolate box, sandalwood and new leather. Full-bodied and concentrated, with a gorgeous velvety texture, the flavors are superbly and seamlessly interwoven into the sweetness without the least bit of heaviness, and it finishes with epically long-lingering spicy layers.
-
Wine Spectator
Complex, with cassis, coffee and tobacco flavors that are bold and fragrant, featuring a smooth, plush body and candied walnut and date bread details. A hint of smoke crescendos on the finish.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F. To learn more, see our full Port Wine Guide
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.