Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This opulent, powerful yet silky wine pairs full fruit ripeness with a luxurious array of cocoa, baking spice, clove and graphite flavors. Blackcurrants, baked blueberries, dark chocolate, spearmint and creme de cassis on the palate lead to a lingering, almost sweet finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
A big step up, the single vineyard 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon True Vineyard has beautiful cassis and blue fruits as well as plenty of foresty notes, pine, bay leaf, chocolate, and earthy minerality. This classic Howell Mountain Cabernet is medium to full-bodied and has a focused, elegant texture, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It's going to evolve for 20-25 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon True Vineyard has a deep garnet-purple color, prancing out of the glass with flamboyant notes of stewed plums, crème de cassis and baked blackberries, plus touches of bay leaves, lavender, unsmoked cigars, pencil lead and tilled earth. Full-bodied, the palate has a rock-solid foundation of firm, grainy tannins and a lively line, finishing long and lifted. 400 cases were made.
Rating: 95(+)
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.