2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain
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Note di degustazione
(15.3% alcohol): Healthy dark red. Highly aromatic nose offers scents of cassis, blueberry, mint, minerals and violet. Fine-grained, rather velvety wine with lovely fruit purity and considerable early personality, not to mention noteworthy inner-mouth sweetness. Not the last word in complexity but concentrated and long, finishing with intriguing graphite and saline mineral notes. A very successful 2008--and very close to drinking. The tannins struck me as far suppler than they appeared to be on release. From a year with a cool spring and a lower-than-normal crop followed by summer heat and quick ripening.
Punteggi della critica
Punteggio medio
Robert Parker
Stephen Tanzer, Vinous
Altre recensioni e punteggi
The 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is comprised of 81% Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest six other grapes – Merlot, Malbec, St. Macaire (how often do you see that!), Petit Verdot, Carmenere, and Cabernet Franc – and is aged 20 months in three-fourths French oak. It has a dense purple color, a wonderful, crystalline nose of crushed rock, camphor, creme de cassis and spring flowers, and a full-bodied mouthfeel. The tannins are moderately high, but they are soft and well-integrated. This is a wine of tremendous intensity and plenty of up-side. Give this wine 2-3 years of bottle age and drink it over the following 20-25 years. This tiny estate has turned out a beautiful Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon and a phenomenal Mt. Veeder that I certainly underrated when I tasted it from barrel last year. Tel. (707) 965-2898; Fax (707) 965-3010
Bright, full ruby. Crushed dark berries, licorice and violet. Then highly aromatic and intense in the mouth, with primary black fruit, spice and mint flavors lifted by a floral quality. Already expressive, but the wine's firm tannic spine will require several years of bottle aging. Capiaux noted that the small crop on Howell Mountain ripened well in 2008 and that the fruit was almost too intense. He did less extraction, fermenting at a cooler temperature and pressing quickly. The wines, he added, were very aromatic from the outset.