2018 Las Posadas

The 2018 Las Posadas is inky, powerful and deep. It also comes across as quite closed in this tasting. Then again, this is Howell Mountain. Time in the glass brings out all the aromas and flavors that make Howell Mountain Cabernets so appealing. There's plenty of lavender, spice, menthol and licorice to play off the dark blue/purplish-hued fruit. All the 2018 needs is a few years in bottle.

All desert island wines by any measure, it’s hard to go wrong with any of these 2018s from Brad Grimes. The 2018 Las Posadas offers a monster bouquet of ripe black fruits, chocolate, graphite, and scorched earth and is dense, full-bodied, and insanely concentrated on the palate. It's a big, monster of a wine yet, the purity of fruit is extraordinary, and it has loads of tannins, perfect balance, and a great finish. I finished my notes with "awesome."

The 2018 Las Posadas is a brilliant wine, but it is also one of the most reticent wines in this range. At the same time, the 2018 is a bit light, especially in the mid-palate, relative to the norm here. Production is just one-third of normal, as all smoke-tainted lots were sold off, which among other things, means there is less Malbec in the blend.