Community Tasting Note

• Slaz Likes this wine: 94 points

  January 18, 2020 - There is some mild bottle variation with this vintage, at least based on my multiples tastings over the last 3+ years. This bottle tasted exceptionally well though. I'm generally more disappointed than impressed with Napa Cabs these days, but Dunn's Howell Mountain Cab remains reliable and impressive. Terrific depth and lively mountain minerality, with much red berry notes that are balanced and fairly elegant. Kept evolving over several hours of decanting, got to a relative steady state after 2 hours. 94-96 pts.

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4 Comments

• Chris Forno commented:

  4/23/20, 7:08 PM - “Mild bottle variation” over 3+ years without additional explanation doesn’t do anything to help me better understand the wine as any wine, especially in a warmer vintage, can change a lot in 3* years.

• Slaz commented:

  4/23/20, 7:18 PM - Hey Chris, what exactly is your point? I'm not sure I'm following. My bottles have been in temperature and humidity controlled storage from release.

• Chris Forno commented:

  4/26/20, 6:02 PM - Hi Slaz. My point is that we see the term “bottle variation“ attributed to a wine for a number of different reasons, but those reasons can be grouped into only two categories in my mind- either storage or deficiencies in the wine-making process such as Brett, Volatile Acidity, not blending all of the wine into one final blend before bottling, not using enough sulfates, etc.
  
  If I were Randy Dunn, one of the best and most respected winemakers in the business, and I read your review, I’d be pissed because here is another dude who doesn’t know what he is talking about and makes uninformed conclusions that defame the wine.
  
  I don’t know many wine people who would claim that a nine year old Dunn is old and you volunteered that all of your bottles were stored properly so storage is off the table I guess. So you’re basically implying that there were errors made in the winemaking process. Don’t you get that?
  
  Why do you think there is “bottle variation”? You discredited the wine after tasting it 3 times over 3 years but failed to say why. Then you give it a very good score.
  
  Don’t confuse bottle variation with a wine made in a warm vintage that is aging much quick than in typical years. That is not bottle variation- that’s a wine with a relatively short trajectory so it is changing quickly.

• Slaz commented:

  4/26/20, 8:33 PM - Hi Chris, I appreciate your taking the time to respond and provide more context for you thinking. I fear you are overreacting, however. I've tasted extensively over the years (nearly 1,400 tasting notes on CT alone and that's just a fraction of my historical tastings), so I stand behind every TN I post. I also happen to be a big fan of Dunn's wines, especially Howell Mountain. Put differently, when I state that I have experienced some bottle variation with this particular bottle vintage, it is exactly that: my conclusion is based on the projections and inferences from many prior tastings, including those of Dunn's top-notch wines. Whether that's the absolute truth or not is besides the point, check out other TNs and post your own, that's the beauty of the Cellartracker community, in my opinion: no single TN determines what's in the eye of beholder. Cheers, and may your own notes be as helpful and informative as you'd like others to be.

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