Winemaker Notes
Blend: 87.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4.5% Malbec, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Merlot, 2% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is another superb wine from La Jota. Rich and explosive, the 2019 possesses tremendous density and plenty of mountain power. A rush of black cherry, blackberry, licorice, spice and menthol builds into the huge finish. This is a fabulous vintage for the La Jota Cabernet.
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James Suckling
Lead pencil and dark fruit with wet earth. Purple fruit, too. Full-bodied with velvety tannins. Solid as a rock and gorgeous. Black olives at the end. Big and attractive. Needs time to open, but already beautiful.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Gorgeous crème de cassis, plums, graphite, crushed stone and tobacco all emerge from the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon, another rich, medium to full-bodied, concentrated, dense, and incredibly impressive 2019 from this estate. It opens up nicely with time in the glass, but there's enough depth and structure here to warrant a solid 2-4 years of bottle age.
Rating: 94+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, with small proportions of Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petit Verdot. It's ripe and rich, with plenty of cassis, hints of cinnamon and cedar and nuances of bay leaf on the nose. Full-bodied and velvety, it's remarkably easy to drink, finishing mouthwatering and long.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe, but compact and restrained in feel, with a core of raspberry, blackberry and mulberry fruit keeping energy in reserve, while light sassafras, licorice and apple wood notes add range through the finish. Drink now.
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.