One of the greatest wines ever from the Howell Mountain icon
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2016 Burgess Cellars Sorenson’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml
The power and intensity of their Howell Mountain site has earned Burgess a reputation for crafting some of the most long-lived Cabernet in Napa Valley. You can find old bottles on some of the finest wine lists in the country: names like Eleven Madison Park in New York and PRESS here in Napa. If you’ve got north of $750 to spend, you can buy a 35-year old bottle direct from the winery. We’ve unlocked a MASSIVE discount for our members on this plush and rich Cabernet, which has been polished by aging in the cellar and deserves every penny of its well-deserved $175 price. Grown in one of Napa Valley’s best vintages ever, it boasts Wine Enthusiast Cellar Selection honors—and it’ll be a valuable addition to your collection.
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An Improbable Vineyard that Produces Profundity
The first time you see Sorenson vineyard, on Howell Mountain, you realize how amazing it is that it was originally planted in the 1870s.
When the Swiss-Italian immigrants first put vines in the earth there, they didn’t have the tools that modern vintners depend on. There were no giant backhoes to rip through the rocky soil, no gas-powered augers to dig post-holes in the unforgiving ground.
But any native of the Alps would have immediately recognized the potential of the site: a steep 27 degree slope with heavily compacted volcanic soils, dotted with rocks and boulders. At 800–1,000 feet of elevation, fog would consume the site in the fall, slowing ripening. Vines would struggle here, but as a result they’d produce small berries boasting intense concentration and incredible ageworthiness.
That’s what drew Tom Burgess to this site, roughly a century after the vineyard was established. By that time, it was already famous in Napa—formerly called Souverain, it was where Warren Winiarski of Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Mike Grgich of Chateau Montelena and Grgich Hills both earned their chops.
And over the next half-century, Burgess wines came to represent some of the finest ageworthy Cabs in California. Their house style is remarkably consistent—they’ve only employed three winemakers since 1972—and it showcases their prime mountainside terroir and often features extended elevage in barrel to tame those mountain wines.
Their 2016 Sorenson’s Reserve is the product of one of the greatest growing seasons in Napa’s history. Given an exceptionally luxurious 30-month stay in barrel to soften Howell Mountain’s sometimes fierce tannins, it’s a monumental bottle of wine that easily stands with its peers in the $175 price tier.