Winemaker Notes
Outpost's Estate Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the very best vineyard blocks located between 1,800 and 2,200 feet in elevation. Grapes from each block within the vineyard are fermented separately so that their winemaking team can be very selective about the lots that comprise the final blend. Wines are neither fined or filtered allowing for the full expression of the vintages' potential.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Plush, super-ripe and full-bodied, a massive but polished wine that’s delicious and well structured for further aging. Blackberries, dried blueberries, creme de cassis, toast and a hint of oak char. A big, beautiful wine that’s easy to sip despite its sheer size. Drinkable now, but best from 2029.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
While I often get pine-like aromas from Howell Mountain Cabs, in Outpost's 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon the herbal notions are more like thyme and sage alongside lovely cassis fruit. Full-bodied and supple, with a silky feel, the wine finishes with impressive length and hints of mocha and dark chocolate.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Cassis, graphite, violets, and spring flower notes shine in Outpost's 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, a rich, medium to full-bodied 2022 that has good concentration, ripe tannins, and a balanced, satisfying, layered style.
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.