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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2016 and 2023 (based on 42 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 92 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 13 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by dalemosier on 9/1/2022 & rated 92 points: Very smooth. If anything it is passing its peak. (555 views) | | | Tasted by dalemosier on 8/17/2022 & rated 93 points: Excellent CS; loved lingering taste, If not at peak close to it. (559 views) | | | Tasted by twain on 10/17/2021 & rated 94 points: Nose is briary, pencil lead, fall leaves. Mouth feel is silky, tons of blueberry, plum skin. My last, what a great wine. (791 views) | | | Tasted by twain on 6/19/2021 & rated 92 points: Berries, eucalyptus, herbal nose. Medium body, pretty integrated tannins but a little hot (could be the sausage pasta exacerbating it). Berries, vanilla, non-distinct herbal and feels like it could go on a bit. (846 views) | | | Tasted by MJP Hou TX on 10/20/2018 & rated 90 points: If you are looking for a big mountain cab, vanilla, oak and fruit. This might be your wine. Drank the same over several days. (2686 views) | | | Tasted by Belongamick on 6/12/2017 & rated 93 points: Wonderful Howell Mountain Cab
The wine looks purple colored. The legs are slow. There is no sediment in the bottle. The body is medium/full. The wine has polished texture. (1892 views) | | | Tasted by kingboo on 4/13/2016 & rated 89 points: Good wine, short of great. Taste has some peculiar underpinnings. (2387 views) | | | Tasted by dmccann3 on 1/23/2016 & rated 93 points: Really nice medium body cab. Opened up after 15 mins, tart cherry, long finish (2205 views) |
| W.H. Smith Producer website
We’ve gone or come a long way!
Bill purchased the old ghost winery, La Jota Vineyard Co. in 1974 and here we are 39 years later…
Bill and Joan look back and wonder where did the years go, so many wonderful experiences and so much has changed in the wine business. In 1974 the Napa Valley had few wineries and there was no traffic to contend with! The winery owners and winemakers knew one another, there weren’t many to know.
The Smith’s resurrected the La Jota winery and planted Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Zinfandel. The first vintage was 1982, and the price was $14 a bottle and that was expensive! The production grew to 4000 cases and the winery sold in 2001 to Markham Vineyards and it is now owned by Kendall Jackson.
Bill and Joan moved down the road and began a new winery. An underground cave of 4,500 square feet. They have 7 acres planted in the Bordeaux varietals from which they produce 700 to 1000 cases of two different Cabernets. The Purple Label is their top tier Cabernet. Both the Bronze and Purple have richness and depth. Both wines are made the same except the Purple gets new French oak.
Pinot Noir is a favorite varietal and Bill looks to cool growing vineyards in the Sonoma Coast appellation when selecting fruit. They produce 4 to 5 Pinot Noirs and each are distinct.
The goal of the Smith’s is to produce wines that are less tannic and drinkable earlier.
Cabernet SauvignonCabernet Sauvignon is probably the most famous red wine grape variety on Earth. It is rivaled in this regard only by its Bordeaux stablemate Merlot, and its opposite number in Burgundy, Pinot Noir. From its origins in Bordeaux, Cabernet has successfully spread to almost every winegrowing country in the world. It is now the key grape variety in many first-rate New World wine regions, most notably Napa Valley, Coonawarra and Maipo Valley. Wherever they come from, Cabernet Sauvignon wines always seem to demonstrate a handful of common character traits: deep color, good tannin structure, moderate acidity and aromas of blackcurrant, tomato leaf, dark spices and cedarwood.
Used as frequently in blends as in varietal wines, Cabernet Sauvignon has a large number of common blending partners. Apart from the obvious Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the most prevalent of these are Malbec, Petit Verdot and Carmenere (the ingredients of a classic Bordeaux Blend), Shiraz (in Australia's favorite blend) and in Spain and South America, a Cabernet – Tempranillo blend is now commonplace. Even the bold Tannat-based wines of Madiran are now generally softened with Cabernet SauvignonUSAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners)Howell Mountain Howell Mountain |
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