Lokoya Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
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Jeb
Dunnuck - Decanter
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Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming all from the from the Keyes Vineyard on Howell Mountain, the 2019 Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon (100% Cabernet Sauvignon) was brought up in 91% new French oak. Incredible crème de cassis, chalky minerality, iron, spring flowers, and black olive tapenade all define the nose, and It's full-bodied on the palate, with building tannins, integrated oak, wonderful sweetness of fruit, and a great, great finish. It opens up beautifully with time in the glass, and while it has classic Mountain structure and concentration, it also has a wealth of fruit and texture, and unquestionably offers pleasure even today. Nevertheless, do your best to hide bottles for 4-5 years if you can. It's a 30- to 40-year wine.
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Decanter
Incredibly rich and opulent. Sumptuous aromas of ripe cassis, boysenberry, blackberry and mountain herbs. The incredibly vivid dark berry fruit – deep and penetrating – is accompanied by a tapestry of granular mountain tannins that are long and laced with a saline minerality. The finish reveals a plethora of pie spices, blueberry compote, chocolate and very fine oak. A powerhouse Cabernet that is pleasure-packed.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Sourced from two blocks of the Keyes Vineyard at La Jota, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain shows more caramel, barrel toast and mocha notes, derived from the choice of Demptos as the cooper. Cassis and blueberry flesh out the flavor profile of this full-bodied, rich, velvety effort. Mouth-filling and plush, it's broad and expansive in the mouth, finishing long and intricately textured.
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James Suckling
The purple fruit is prevailing, together with conifer, lead-pencil and ink-pot aromas, following through to a full body with layered, ripe tannins and lightly toasted oak at the finish. Give it three to four years to come around. Try after 2025.
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Wine Spectator
Vivid, with açaí, boysenberry and blackberry puree steaming through, buttressed by a prominent cast iron note that lends a racy, driven feel from start to finish. A wine of fresh power. Best from 2023 through 2036.
Other Vintages
2018-
Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
James
Suckling -
Wine
Spectator
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
Robert
Parker -
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Spectator
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Robert
Parker -
Jeb
Dunnuck -
Wilfred
Wong
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Parker -
Wilfred
Wong
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker -
International
Wine Cellar
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
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Robert
Parker -
Wine
Spectator
Established in 1995, Lokoya is a collection of four distinct Cabernet Sauvignons from four of Napa Valley’s most celebrated mountain appellations: Mount Veeder, Howell Mountain, Spring Mountain and Diamond Mountain. These limited-production wines are 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, fermented with native yeast, and bottled unfined and unfiltered, resulting in the purest expression of place.
Cabernet Sauvignon as lens, site as conveyor—the grape variety and winemaking for the four wines remain consistent, allowing the vineyard sites to shine with the climate, soils and sunlight all fully expressed in the glass.
Given the high elevation of the sites, the vineyards demand constant attention. The deep understanding of the vineyard trajectory in each vintage comes from Winemaker Christopher Carpenter’s years of expertise. Intervention is kept to a minimum both in the vineyard and in the cellar, leaving the fruit to express itself as naturally and eloquently as possible.
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.