Winemaker Notes
The 2022 La Jota Merlot reveals layers of Luxardo cherries and black plum at its core. Petit Verdot and Tannat contribute focused tannins that carry notes of toast, graphite, and espresso bean to an enduring finish.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Winemaker Chris Carpenter believes the energy of mountain sunlight and the right balance of soils around Napa create ideal conditions for Merlot with depth and structure. He layers in a small amount of Petit Verdot for its savouriness and backbone of tannin to complement the luscious character of Merlot fruit. Grapes are sourced from the Keyes and La Jota estate vineyards. Fermentation occurs in open-top stainless steel tanks, utilising native yeasts, with pump-overs and basket pressing. Carpenter personally tastes every basket press cut to make precise decisions. The wine is then aged for 22 months in 60% new French oak. The result is a medium- to full-bodied wine with impressive density and lift. Aromatics are striking—red berry and mulberry fruit layered with graphite minerality, rose petal, and wild herb notes that carry through to the palate. The tannins are finely woven, plush yet firm, giving the wine forward momentum. It’s brimming with energy and finishes with a mineral tension reminiscent of spring water—quite a showing in 2022.
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James Suckling
A spicy, dark chocolaty wine that's well structured and packed with black fruit and a melange of spices. Blended with 14% petit verdot, which adds tannin and savory black pepper accents. It's concentrated and well layered, with fine-grained tannins that are nicely balanced by acidity. Drink now or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Combining structure and polish, this red offers currant and black cherry flavors. Takes on caramel and toasty spice accents while persisting toward broad-shouldered tannins. Drink now through 2035.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 La Jota Merlot Howell Mountain is a deep ruby-purple effort that incorporates 14% Petit Verdot and was aged 22 months in 60% new French oak. It delivers beautiful notes of red and black plums, dark cherries, leather, and graphite, along with subtle baking spice nuances. Medium to full-bodied, rich, and concentrated, it stays remarkably straight and focused on the palate, with a beautiful texture and outstanding balance. This impressive Merlot from Chris Carpenter will benefit from a year or two of bottle age and keep for 10-15 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
La Jota's 2022 Merlot Howell Mountain includes 14% Petit Verdot, something winemaker Chris Carpenter describes as "a yin and yang combination." Scents of ripe cherries, pine needles and mocha appear on the nose, while the medium- to full-bodied palate is rich, velvety-textured and tannic. It's a powerful, concentrated Merlot, with a long, flavorful finish.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
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.