Ink Grade Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

  • 93 Wine
    Spectator
  • 93 Robert
    Parker
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Ink Grade Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2017  Front Bottle Shot
Ink Grade Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2017  Front Bottle Shot Ink Grade Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2017  Front Label

Product Details


Varietal

Region

Producer

Vintage
2017

Size
750ML

ABV
14%

Your Rating

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Somm Note

Winemaker Notes

This Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is structured and complex while remaining elegant and pure. It's a wine with freshness and elegance that does not come at the expense of structure and complexity. They aim to change the narrative surrounding Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. It happens that they have chosen the most “massive” of all AVA’s to do so. The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon is expansive with intriguing depth. A defined aromatic core, seamless on the palate with finely polished tannins. The lingering finish is expressive, possessing tension while remaining fresh and light.

Professional Ratings

  • 93
    Lots of harnessed power in this version. A deep well of cassis, plum and boysenberry fruit flavors are in reserve, but for now encased by tannins and racy red tea and savory details. Sleek, with a deeply buried iron note. Everything should meld and stretch out nicely with some cellaring. Best from 2023 through 2035.
  • 93
    The team at Ink Grade favors east and north-facing blocks for their own label, including the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon. Aged in a variety of different-sized oak vessels, the nose features scents of vanilla, cedar and cassis, with a gentle minty overtone. Full-bodied and firm but not lacking flesh or richness, this wine is dense and concentrated but lively and taut, with a long, dusty finish framed by fine-grained tannins.
Ink Grade

Ink Grade

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Ink Grade, California
Ink Grade Learn More About Ink Grade Winery Video

The estate on Howell Mountain is no ordinary vineyard. Planted to nurture rather than disrupt the ecosystem that has thrived there for centuries, the Ink Grade is at once lush and rugged, idyllic and unforgiving. This dynamic balance is expressed in every bottle. The single-vineyard wines of Ink Grade Estate debut nearly 150 years after their land was acquired by Napa Valley legend Theron Ink.

Rooted firmly in the Napa Valley, Ink Grade makes single-vineyard wines of remarkable intensity and grace. They are the product of rugged terrain perched atop the Vaca Range, on the east side of Howell Mountain.

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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.

SWS552265_2017 Item# 1069620

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