Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

  • 97 Vinous
  • 96 Wine
    Spectator
  • 95 Robert
    Parker
  • 94 Jeb
    Dunnuck
4.4 Very Good (9)
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Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2018  Front Bottle Shot
Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2018  Front Bottle Shot Dunn Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2018  Front Label

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2018

Size
750ML

ABV
13.64%

Features
Collectible

Your Rating

0.0 Not For Me NaN/NaN/N

Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

This signature wine contains only fruit farmed on Howell Mountain. The wine comes in a distinctive bottle that is hand dipped in red wax. Aged 32 months in 100% new French oak.

Blend: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Professional Ratings

  • 97
    The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is elegant, deep and classy. Inky dark purplish fruit, savory herbs, menthol, licorice and spice. The purity of the fruit is remarkable today. There is plenty of youthful Howell Mountain tannin, so readers will have to be patient. Bright floral accents lift the red/purplish berry fruit nicely. This is such an expressive, alluring Cabernet.
  • 96

    Ripe and very juicy, with a youthfully compact set of plum, boysenberry and blackberry compote flavors wrapped in licorice and violet notes. This is both racy and grippy, showing serious power but with the freshness and drive to match. Delivers a long, iron accent that scores the fruit through the finish. Best from 2024.

  • 95
    The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a typically long-term proposition, coated in dusty tannins and cedary oak. It will take time for the cassis, blueberry and slightly pine-scented backbone of this wine to emerge, as for the moment it's almost difficult to taste. Yes, the concentration is present, the tannins are almost silky-ripe, but the structure of this medium to full-bodied wine is unassailable. Hands off for at least five years, and probably more, to judge by how past vintages have evolved.
    Rating: 95+
  • 94

    I continue to think the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain was slightly impacted by the high-level smoke on Howell Mountain in 2018, but now five years after the vintage, it certainly hasn't gotten worse, and I think what smoke is there isn't going to negatively impact the wine going forward. Deep purple-hued, with a powerful, concentrated style in its ripe blackcurrants, scorched earth, lead pencil shavings, and chalky minerality, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a round, layered texture, chalky tannins, and outstanding length. I followed (and drank) this bottle over multiple days, and it showed consistently, which gives me more confidence in this wine. Nevertheless, this is a wine that makes you question the wine as well as yourself.

Other Vintages

2019
  • 98 Vinous
  • 98 Jeb
    Dunnuck
  • 96 Wine
    Spectator
2017
  • 97 Vinous
  • 96 Robert
    Parker
  • 95 Wine
    Spectator
  • 92 Jeb
    Dunnuck
2016
  • 99 Jeb
    Dunnuck
  • 97 Decanter
  • 95 Wine
    Spectator
2015
  • 96 Jeb
    Dunnuck
  • 95 Robert
    Parker
  • 95 Wine
    Spectator
2014
  • 96 Decanter
  • 95 Robert
    Parker
  • 95 Jeb
    Dunnuck
2013
  • 98 James
    Suckling
  • 97 Decanter
  • 97 Robert
    Parker
  • 96 Jeb
    Dunnuck
  • 91 Wine
    Spectator
2012
  • 98 James
    Suckling
  • 96 Robert
    Parker
  • 96 Jeb
    Dunnuck
  • 93 Wine
    Spectator
2011
  • 96 James
    Suckling
  • 94 Robert
    Parker
  • 93 Vinous
2010
  • 98 James
    Suckling
2009
  • 96 Robert
    Parker
  • 93 Wine
    Spectator
2008
  • 98 Robert
    Parker
2007
  • 97 Robert
    Parker
  • 95 Jeb
    Dunnuck
2006
  • 95 Robert
    Parker
2005
  • 95 James
    Suckling
  • 94 Robert
    Parker
2004
  • 94 Robert
    Parker
2003
  • 95 Robert
    Parker
2002
  • 91 Wine
    Spectator
2001
  • 95 Robert
    Parker
2000
  • 93 James
    Suckling
1999
  • 93 Wine
    Spectator
  • 93 Robert
    Parker
1998
  • 90 Robert
    Parker
1997
  • 95 Robert
    Parker
1996
  • 95 Wine
    Spectator
1995
  • 96 Robert
    Parker
1994
  • 96 Robert
    Parker
  • 92 Wine
    Spectator
1993
  • 95 Robert
    Parker
  • 91 Wine
    Spectator
1992
  • 97 Robert
    Parker
1991
  • 93 Robert
    Parker
  • 91 Wine
    Spectator
1990
  • 96 Robert
    Parker
  • 91 Wine
    Spectator
1989
  • 92 Wine
    Spectator
1987
  • 97 Wine
    Spectator
  • 94 Robert
    Parker
1986
  • 95 Robert
    Parker
1985
  • 93 Robert
    Parker
1983
  • 91 Wine
    Spectator
1980
  • 95 Wine
    Spectator
Dunn

Dunn Vineyards

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Dunn Vineyards, California
Dunn Vineyards Winery Image
High atop Howell Mountain, nestled among 150-year-old fir trees, is Dunn Vineyards. Since 1979 the Dunn's have been producing Cabernet Sauvignon. Their total production is now at 4500 cases, split between the Howell Mountain and Napa Valley appellations.
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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.

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Howell Mountain Wine

Napa Valley, California

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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.

PSLCDN017_2018 Item# 1133046

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