Winemaker Notes
The 2009 Howell Mountain Cabernet is O'Shaughnessy's first 10th anniversary wine, a represents a special milestone for us. The wine has a dark purple color with a solid core. Blackberry, boysenberry, black currant, rum raisin, graphite, and violet aromas are bright and lively. Expressive fruit concentrations on the palate of black cherry, blueberry and crème di cassis are followed by a long complex finish with balanced tannins and good acidity. An extracted wine that is rewarding upon release but will continue to improve with cellaring for another 10 years at least.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The deep garnet colored 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain does pirouettes out of the glass, flashing fancy blackberry pie, preserved Morello cherries and blackcurrant pastilles notes plus hints of cigar box, potpourri, fallen leaves, mossy tree bark and crushed rocks. Medium to full-bodied, the palate features lovely freshness and a ripe, fine-grained texture supporting the multilayered black and red fruits, finishing long and mineral laced.
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.