Lokoya Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
-
Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain (100% Cabernet Sauvignon) is deep purple-black in color and offers an incredible perfume of lilacs, black truffles, violets and menthol over a core of cassis, mulberries and warm plums plus a waft of tobacco leaf. The palate is full-bodied and built like a brick house with very firm, very ripe tannins and oodles of freshness cutting through the earthy layers, finishing very long.
-
Jeb Dunnuck
Lots of pine forest, savory herbs, California bay leaf, and both black and blue fruits emerge from the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain. It’s another full-bodied, singular wine from Chris that’s perfectly balanced, with beautiful concentration and the purity and balance that’s the hallmark of this great vintage. Short-term cellaring will be the name of the game here and it will be long-lived. Anticipated maturity: 2021-2046 Rating: 97+
-
James Suckling
I have not had many Howell Mountain cabernets like this with crushed blackberry and blueberry character. Nuanced. Full-bodied and extremely fine-textured. It goes on for minutes. Greatness.
-
Wine Spectator
Features a deep well of cassis, steeped blackberry and warmed plum reduction flavors at the core, slowly unwinding to reveal streaks of graphite, alder and smoldering tobacco on the finish. Muscular but defined, with a deep tug of earth, this should cruise in the cellar. Best from 2024 through 2042.
Other Vintages
2019-
Jeb
Dunnuck - Decanter
-
Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
-
Robert
Parker
-
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
-
Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wilfred
Wong
-
Robert
Parker -
Wilfred
Wong
-
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
-
Robert
Parker
-
Robert
Parker -
International
Wine Cellar
-
Robert
Parker
-
Robert
Parker
-
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
-
Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
Established in 1995, Lokoya is a collection of four distinct Cabernet Sauvignons from four of Napa Valley’s most celebrated mountain appellations: Mount Veeder, Howell Mountain, Spring Mountain and Diamond Mountain. These limited-production wines are 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, fermented with native yeast, and bottled unfined and unfiltered, resulting in the purest expression of place.
Cabernet Sauvignon as lens, site as conveyor—the grape variety and winemaking for the four wines remain consistent, allowing the vineyard sites to shine with the climate, soils and sunlight all fully expressed in the glass.
Given the high elevation of the sites, the vineyards demand constant attention. The deep understanding of the vineyard trajectory in each vintage comes from Winemaker Christopher Carpenter’s years of expertise. Intervention is kept to a minimum both in the vineyard and in the cellar, leaving the fruit to express itself as naturally and eloquently as possible.
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.