A taste of Howell Mountain: Tor Cimarossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2003-2016

After two days on Napa’s Howell Mountain, I head to the home of Tor Kenward, owner of Tor Wines, for a very exclusive tasting.

‘I can’t believe it, but this is the first time we’ve done a vertical of our Tor Cimarossa vineyard Cabernet,’ he marvels as we settle onto a comfy couch in the living room of his stone house just north of St. Helena. ‘It’s exciting; I think some of these wines will outlive me!’

Cimarossa (Italian for ‘red hilltop’) is one of Howell Mountain’s top vineyards, and Kenward has been making the wine since 2003, though not every year.

Scroll down to see the wines

Kenward, his winemaker Jeff Ames and I are gathered to sample 10 vintages spanning 2003 to 2016. The wines are lined up on a coffee table in front of a massive fireplace that separates us from the dining room, where the table is laid for a spectacular dinner of duck, being cooked by his wife Susan Costner, a brilliant writer of cookbooks.

Since founding their Tor label in 2001, Kenward has focussed primarily on making limited-production Cabernets and Chardonnays with purchased grapes from some of Napa’s most iconic sites.

But that wasn’t his dream when he arrived in Napa in 1975. The valley then was a sleepy place with a handful of wineries and not a single Ferrari parked on St. Helena’s Main Street. He tells highly entertaining stories from his 27 years at Beringer Vineyards, where he helped build its reputation for single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays, made a couple of his own experimental barrels every year, and sniffed out the valley’s top terroirs.

Fast-forward to 2019: the Tor portfolio now includes eight Cabernets (four single-vineyard cuvees), three Chardonnays, a Syrah, a Grenache, a Petite Sirah, and a late-harvest dessert wine. The range has grown slowly, expanding as Kenward accessed more top sites. While I love the rich, round Chardonnays, the Cabernets have always been Tor’s most distinctive wines.

Kenward’s Napa connections have paid off big time, enabling him to source grapes from top sites like Beckstoffer To Kalon in Oakville, Melanson vineyard on top of Pritchard Hill and Cimarossa on Howell Mountain, as well as elsewhere in the valley.

All his single-vineyard Cabernets are quite different from one another, but share the rich, sun-kissed dark fruit, plush texture and 14.5%+ alcohol of many expensive Napa Cabs. These are terroir-driven wines with a polish that reflects meticulous winemaking.

Cimarossa

The 6ha Cimarossa vineyard, planted just over 20 years ago, lies on steep terraces in a volcanic cinder cone at an altitude of 640 metres on Howell Mountain, on the valley’s eastern side in the Vaca Range. Owners of this prized vineyard, Dino Dina and his wife Corry Dekker, sell grapes to a handful of winemakers, as well as making their own wines under the Cimarossa label.

For the first two years, Kenward bought fruit from several blocks. ‘But Block 10 was the show horse,’ he explains, ‘so since 2005 we’ve only used that. It’s the warmest: west facing, with red volcanic soil.’

The mornings on Howell Mountain can be crystal clear when there’s fog in the valley, which means longer hours of sunlight. Grape clusters are small and the berries tiny. All that translates into Cabernets that are inky-coloured, intense, structured and powerful, with a dark earthiness and blackberry, chocolate and sometimes mocha flavours.

Tor’s Cimarossa is less burly than other Howell Mountain Cabernets, and at a far lower price than names like Dana Estates and Abreu – but it hasn’t yet matched the profound, long-lived Dunn Vineyards.

Taming the tannins

Minimal intervention is Tor’s byword in the cellar. Only indigenous yeasts are used, and they shifted from Taransaud to Darnajou barrels in 2005 – many winemakers believe that Taransaud gives Howell Mountain reds a harsher taste.

My big takeaway from this tasting was how much Tor’s Cimarossa Cabernet lineage reflects both the vintage and the terroir. Recent vintages 2013 and 2016 hit a delicious new high: wonderfully aromatic, savoury and spicy, with silky textures.

The big issue for Howell Mountain Cabernet is tannins, but Kenward and Ames have found a way to tame them by evolving the length of fermentations to keep from extracting too much. The 2016 especially seems to express the mineral, rocky side of Howell Mountain Cabernet without losing elegance.

These are wines for lovers of rich but balanced Napa Cabernets. All vintages have aged brilliantly, and the wine is getting better and better. I’d stash the 2013 and the 2016 in my cellar, but today I’d start drinking the 2011, a cold year that produced a succulent, pretty wine that’s yummy right now.

Tasting Tor Cimarossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2003-2016:

Tor Wines at a glance: 

Location Napa Valley

Founded 2001

Proprietors Tor and Susan Kenward

Winemaker Jeff Ames

Number of wines 15, with many single-vineyard bottlings

Cabernet single vineyards Cimarossa (Howell Mountain), Beckstoffer To Kalon (Oakville), Melanson (Pritchard Hill), Tierra Roja (Oakville East), Herb Lamb (Howell Mountain Foothills)

Grape varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Syrah, Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah, Grenache

Average annual production 3,500 to 4,000 cases

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