2018 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain Napa Valley 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 1980s and 90s, and his 2018 edition shows that he’s still at his best.

This regal and ageworthy 97-pointer continues the tradition of rugged grandeur that has come to define Dunn and Howell Mountain writ large. Dark and powerful, but showing the detail and nuance we love in the best Dunn vintages, it absolutely blew us away—and 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 Dunn knew 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 “elegant, deep and classy,” “expressive,” and “alluring,” and it’s hard to think of a better description. It’s muscular and savory, filled with ripe fruit but without an ounce of extra plushness. This bottle means business, and no wine in Napa will fare better in the cellar.