TASTING NOTES:
WINEMAKER'S NOTES:
The nose of this noble offering is true to its Howell Mountain heritage: vibrant, bold and deliciously expressive of ripe black fruit, Bing cherry, and licorice, with hints of juniper berry and baking spices. While the expectation that comes with its pedigreed terroir and adroit winemaking sets an awfully high bar, the 2016 vintage of our most storied wine stands and delivers. On the attack, the greeting announces the wine’s arrival with gravitas and vigor. Ripe black fruit, licorice and hints of juniper berry and baking spices make for an ignition point that is brazenly throaty and cocksure. Aged 25 months in 50% new French Oak, the wine beckons beyond its framed oak confines to issue its “call of the wild”. Brooding and brutish, the wine shows restrained power and aggressiveness to be unleashed without restraint among collectors who dare. Sleek, powerful, brooding, and seductive without caring to be stylish, the wine invites comparison to the new American muscle cars whose street legality should likely be revoked.
