O'Shaughnessy Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
- jd98+
- d97
- wa94
- js94
- v94
Category | Red Wine |
Varietals | |
Brand | O'Shaughnessy |
Origin | California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain |
Alcohol/vol | 15.2% |
Tasting Notes:
O’Shaughnessy’s Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is a gorgeous and multilayered wine that showcases the complexity of all seven of the Bordeaux varietals that they farm.
The wine is dark ruby red with aromas of raspberries, currants, ripe plum, and a bit of smoke. Focused flavours of wild cherry jam, plum butter, and raspberry preserves are followed by a long finish with integrated acidity and complex palate-filling tannins. Muscular, but with restrained elegance, this wine carries the O’Shaughnessy trademark of balance and power.
Jeb Dunnuck
- jd98+
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is an incredible wine, and it flirts with perfection. Full-bodied and concentrated, it has flawless balance and elegance as well as just textbook Howell Mountain notes of blue fruits, cassis, violets, graphite, and background oak. I love its tannins, it has remarkable purity of fruit, and a great, great finish. It has some appeal today yet deserves 4-5 years of bottle age and should have over two decades of longevity.
Decanter
- d97
Winemaker Sean Capiaux has crafted this Howell Mountain staple for more than two decades. In 2019, he’s made a knockout! Explosive aromas of ripe, black fruit, wild mountain sage, turned earth and toasty oak. Enveloping on the palate with an intricate mix of black cherry, blackberry and blueberry fruit moving quickly into more savoury notes of crushed stones, cassis, wildflowers. Finishing long and with vibrancy and lift. A powerful core of firm fine-grained tannins are nicely integrated. Great cellar potential.
Wine Advocate
- wa94
Sourced from a single vineyard, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 4% Malbec, 1.5 % Petit Verdot, 1.5 % Saint-Macaire (an obscure grape from southwestern France), 1% Carménère and 1% Cabernet Franc. The nose is all blueberries and bay leaves at first, later developing hints of cassis and sage, all nestled in soft notes of cedar and vanilla, while the full-bodied palate is nicely concentrated and softly tannic, with enough grip to suggest more than a decade of aging potential.
James Suckling
- js94
Notes of dark spices, cocoa and bark with ripe blackberries and plums on offer. Full-bodied with ripe, succulent dark and blue fruit coated with velvety tannins. Plush and lingering with a spicy finish and some earthiness to it. Better from 2025.
Vinous
- v94
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain offers lovely brightness and energy, all in a mid-weight style that is both appealing and surprisingly approachable for a young Howell Mountain wine. Sweet dark cherry, plum, mocha, spice, tobacco and lavender are all beautifully lifted in the glass. This is an especially gracious, polished Cabernet from Howell Mountain. The 2019 has so much to offer. Best of all, it should drink well with minimal cellaring.