Duckhorn Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
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Wilfred
Wong -
Wine
Spectator -
Wine &
Spirits
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The nose offers an explosion of dark mountain fruit with decadent aromas of
raspberry-filled chocolates, black currant, mulberry and huckleberry jam, as well
as more savory notes of cedar and spice. On the palate, firm mountain tannins
underscore this wine’s opulence and ageability, framing the blackberry, fig and
black currant flavors, with bright underlying acidity providing poise and finesse
to the long, layered finish.
Blend: 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2017 Duckhorn Vineyards Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon offers outstanding length and richness on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine shines with aromas and flavors of black fruit, licorice, chalk, and oak. Enjoy it with a grilled, well-marbled ribeye. (Tasted: December 18, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Spectator
This is ripe and broad in feel, with a mix of mulled plum, açaí and blackberry fruit notes infused with alder and black tea and then laced up with a hint of licorice root. Shows a smoldering cast iron echo through the brooding finish. Best from 2023.
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Wine & Spirits
The pungency of fruit grown in volcanic soil infuses this wine’s mountain cool. Still adolescent, its tannins are tied to notes of eucalyptus and red-apple skin, clean but firm and unyielding. The fruit is present, the structure powerful but under control. This should grow more expressive with a few years of bottle age, and will reward long cellaring.
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Founded by Dan and Margaret Duckhorn in 1976, Duckhorn Vineyards has been crafting classic Napa Valley wines for nearly 40 years. This winemaking tradition has grown to include seven meticulously farmed Estate vineyards, located throughout the various microclimates of the Napa Valley. Focused on quality and consistency, these Estate vineyards are an essential element in making wines of distinction. Pioneering and perfecting Merlot as a premium varietal, Duckhorn Vineyards now makes several elegant Merlot and distinctive Cabernet Sauvignon bottlings that showcase its premium vineyard sites. Duckhorn Vineyards has been named one of the “Top 100 Wineries” in the world eight times by Wine & Spirits, and the 2014 Duckhorn Vineyards Napa Valley Merlot Three Palms Vineyard was named the “2017 Wine of the Year,” topping Wine Spectator’s annual list of the world’s “Top 100 Wines.”
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.