One of my biggest complaints about California wines, and Napa cabs in particular, is that they have no sense of place. With that in mind, I ventured to the Howell Mountain AVA Spring Tasting earlier this week. It was a revelation. These were wines that not only had tremendous flavor profiles, but they all had a definite sense of place, they could only come from Howell Mountain.
What are the characteristics of this AVA? First is vibrant dark fruit with some very interesting earth notes. This is a result of being on a mountain and the fruit taking much longer to ripen. As a result, these wines are very big with some big and chewy tannins. But what I found to be the most defining marker in all these wines were their juicy acidity, they made you want to come back for more.
Did I say acidity in cabernets. You betcha! And when mixed with these huge tannins you had a delightful combo that led to long finishes. I found this combination in all the wines I sampled, cabs, zins and the petit sirah.
So what is Black Sears Vineyard? It is perhaps the most incredible zinfandel vineyard in California. That's a really outlandish claim, but I have been tasting wines from this state for over 20 years and I have never come across zins like the three I tasted from this vineyard. The first, Black Sears Estate Zinfandel was luscious with lots of plum fruit, but not jammy. And then the acidity, rare for a zin took over. Wow!
Next was a vertical of zins from this vineyard made by V. Sattui. I work at this winery, and it was their 2009 that alerted me to the uniqueness of this vineyard location. Their 2008 was special, with jammy fruit and the mouth watering acidity. The 1997 was still youthful, very unusual for a 15 year old zin.
The final zin was from the Robert Craig Winery. This was an elegant wine, nuanced and very restrained. It had well developed tannins, and again, that stunning acidity. All of these wines sell for between $40 and $50 per bottle.
All these wines from Howell Mountain were truly special, yet the zins made from the Black Sears Vineyard are truly worth seeking out. They are unique wines that scream a sense of place.
