Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Darker red, blue, and black fruits, sappy spring flowers, graphite, and chalky minerality all define the 2021 Cabernet Franc Howell Mountain, a medium to full-bodied, ultra-pure, fine, graceful Cabernet Franc with tons to love.
Rating: 96+ -
James Suckling
Aromas of currants with lead pencil, bark and dried mushrooms. Fresh herbs, too. Full-bodied, with creamy and firm tannins that are polished and give great length. Chewy at the end. So long. Made from 100% cabernet franc. 377 cases produced. Give this three or four years to soften and beyond. One for the cellar.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
All Cabernet Franc, with the core of the bottling coming from vines planted in 1976, La Jota's 2021 Cabernet Franc Howell Mountain harkens back to the terrific Cab Franc bottlings this estate bottled in the early 1990s. Complex and gently leafy, with notes of pine and red raspberries, the nose is enchanting, while the palate is supple and almost creamy in feel, medium to full-bodied, then moves into a long, elegant finish, capped by gently dusty tannins. Terrific stuff.
Cabernet Franc, a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, is the subtler and more delicate of the Cabernets. Today Cabernet Franc produces outstanding single varietal wines across the wine-producing world. Somm Secret—One of California's best-kept secrets is the Happy Canyon appellation of Santa Barbara. Here Cabernet Franc shines as a single varietal wine or in blends, expressing sumptuous fruit, savory aromas and polished tannins.
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.