2011 Camiana Blue Hall Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain 750 ml

Howell Mtn. Cabernet Sauvignon and the NYC Marathon

We’ve dined with Robert Parker once. With Antonio Galloni a half-dozen times. Anyone who has enjoyed the company of both critics can’t help but understand why Parker once suggested that Antonio was the heir to the throne at The Wine Advocate.

While there are obvious differences in the path that led each man to the world of wine — Parker was first a practicing attorney, while Galloni attended Berklee College of Music before earning an MBA at MIT — in many ways, both men are cut from the same cloth. While we find both guys to be good listeners, each is decisive, quick to make a call as it pertains to a winemaker’s cellar protocol, growing techniques, and vintages.

For the most part, Parker and Galloni tend to agree far more frequently than they disagree. But in the case of Napa Valley’s out-of-the-ordinary 2011 growing season, the two most respected wine critics in the world published detailed vintage reports that reached somewhat different conclusions.

Galloni came out of the gate first. While staying in St. Helena in the summer of 2011, Antonio told us that he felt like he was in Piedmont, not Napa. A cloud of fog encased the valley floor. The mornings were cold and very damp. But when Galloni hopped in the car and took the drive up Howell Mountain Road, he wrote in Vinous, “something bizarre and beautiful happened.” The fog disappeared. It was no longer drizzling. Sunshine bathed Howell Mountain. “Above the fog line, everything was different,” Galloni reported. “2011 is a year where hillside vineyards are the stars. Most importantly, 2011 is a beautiful vintage through which to discover what makes Napa Valley’s best terroirs so compelling.”

Parker didn’t entirely disagree, also citing stellar 2011 performances from wineries working with top sites on Howell Mountain and Pritchard Hill, and even the well-draining vineyards in Oakville and Rutherford. Still, The Wine Advocate was more cautious in encouraging consumers to sock away cases of 2011s. While there are surely diamonds in the rough, Parker seemed to suggest, there were plenty of clunkers as well.

The 2011 “Camiana” Blue Hall Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a beauty off the Blue Hall Vineyard founded by Drs. Andrew Zolopa and Annie Talbot.

How did a pair of Stanford researchers leave the lab long enough to found the gorgeous Blue Hall Vineyard? As a young professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, Dr. Zolopa made 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 from Palo Alto hubbub.

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 called in the Piña family to tend and manage Blue Hall Vineyard.

The 2011 “Camiana” Blue Hall Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain all but stole the show last March. Purple-black in color, with chiseled aromas of blackberry, black cherry, violets, and graphite, touched with dried roses. Rich, finely structured, and just now beginning to unwind, filled with blackberry and black cherry preserves, finishing with the slightly dusty tannins for which the mountain is so well known. Drink now-2025.

$80 on release. 480 bottles have FINALLY been earmarked for WineAccess at $35/bottle. Shipping included on 4.