2009 Camiana Blue Hall Vineyard Cabernet Howell Mountain 750 ml

2009 Blue Hall Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mtn. ‘Camiana’ …
for a Fortunate Few

The 2009 vintage was superb in Napa Valley and up above on Howell Mountain. While Cabernet Sauvignon was harvested on the valley floor in the first week of October, on the high-elevation perches, the call to pick wouldn’t come until the later part of the month. That extra hang-time gave birth to Howell Mountain Cabernets of deep color and great intensity — wines that drank well on release, but are only now coming into their own.

The 2009 “Camiana” Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is a beauty, drawn off Dr. Andrew Zolopa’s prized Blue Hall Vineyard. A professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and a pioneering HIV researcher in Sub-Saharan Africa, Dr. Zolopa would make weekend trips to Napa Valley to clear his mind. In 1998, he discovered a small property on Howell Mountain, 1,700 feet above the Napa Valley floor, surrounded by Beringer’s Cabernet vineyards. Dr. Zolopa made the purchase just a few months later, intending it only for a quiet retreat.

Soon after Dr. Zolopa and his wife and fellow Stanford researcher Dr. Annie Talbot built their house, their real estate agent asked the question so often posed to new property owners on Howell Mountain. “When are you going to plant your vineyard?” the agent asked. By 2001, Dr. Zolopa had caught the wine bug and planted just 3 acres to vines. Then he did one better, calling in the Piña family to tend and manage Blue Hall Vineyard.

Yields were small in 2009, less than 3 tons per acre of small-berry Cabernet Sauvignon. While many compare the natural concentration of the 2009s to the 2007s, structurally the vintages are quite different. In 2007, there was more desiccation and, as a result, a higher skin-to-juice ratio, making for harder, more tannic Cabernets. In 2009, however, the skins were thinner, the grapes were juicier, and due to the extended hang-time, tannins rounder and riper. The top wines of the AVA, like Zolopa’s tiny production off Blue Hall Vineyard, are just now hitting full stride — and are absolutely stunning.

The 2009 “Camiana” Blue Hall Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a gentle beast. Purple-black in hue. Plush aromas of blackberry, dark plum, violets, and graphite, touched with dried flowers. Rich and pliant on the attack, filled with blackberry and black cherry preserves, velour-like texturally, finishing with slightly dusty, soft tannins, arguing gracefully for an additional 5-7 years of cellar slumber.

93 points from Wine Enthusiast. $75 on release and to the winery mailing list. A tad over half price this morning — ONLY on WineAccess. Shipping included on 4.