2017 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain 750 ml

There are few wines more iconic in Napa than Dunn’s Howell Mountain Cabernet. Randy Dunn put the now-coveted Howell Mountain appellation on the map by producing some of Napa’s greatest wines throughout the 80s and 90s—and his 2017 edition shows that he’s making his best bottles today.

This regal and ageworthy 97-point 2017 continues the tradition of rugged grandeur that has come to define Dunn and Howell Mountain writ large. Dark and powerful but showing beautiful detail and nuance, it’s going to get better and better with age.

When Randy Dunn first planted his flag on Howell Mountain in 1979—long before Robert Parker called this bottling an “iconic wine”—the rocky, hardscrabble area wasn’t yet considered one of the most desirable locations for Cabernet in Napa. It was long before Hundred Acre, Abreu, and Dana would make $500 bottles from the neighborhood, but Randy saw that the mountain had the potential to produce epic wines.

So he left his job at Caymus, where he was the original enologist, to start a small vineyard. He then proceeded to make wines that came to define “classic Napa”: bold, dark, rugged Cabernets capable of aging for decades.

Vinous called this wine “positively stunning,” and it’s hard to think of a better description. Deep crimson in the glass, the nose is overflowing with of black, blue, and red fruits framed by Dunn’s trademark wild herbs, tobacco, and spice. The palate is muscular, without an ounce of extra plushness. This is a wine that means business.

We urge you to cellar as many bottles of this incredible Cabernet as you can, and open them up on special occasions. That’s what Dunn is for.