Regional profile: Howell Mountain

High on Howell Mountain at Outpost winery, the vines grow on steep slopes of rocky red soil surrounded by pines, oaks and madrone trees. Views are breathtaking: distant mountains, layered wisps of fog and a tiny slice of the Napa Valley floor far below.

Scroll down for Elin McCoy’s top dozen wines from Howell Mountain

‘Rugged’ and ‘remote’ are the words I’d use to describe the Howell Mountain appellation, famous for inky-coloured Cabernets, Napa’s longest-lived. Its distinctive terroir is why AXA Millésimes, owner of Bordeaux’s Château Pichon Baron, purchased Outpost last July. ‘We’re not looking to make Château Pichon Baron in Napa,’ insists managing director Christian Seely. ‘We bought because the wines are true to the place they come from.’

The contrast between Pichon Baron’s formal turreted grandeur and Outpost’s wood-framed winery with a ‘Cowboys Only’ sign couldn’t be more dramatic. And compared to Napa’s typical glitz, Howell Mountain is laid-back, rustic, unglamorous.

Yet this AVA (American Viticultural Area) on the eastern side of the valley in the Vaca mountains was Napa’s first sub-appellation, created in 1983 on the strength of its unique microclimate and the taste and structure of its wines. This is prime Cabernet territory, but Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Grenache also flourish at Outpost and elsewhere.

Howell Mountain at a glance:

First established 1870s;

AVA established 1983, first sub- region in Napa Valley Area under vine 607ha

Elevation 427m-726m Soil type Rocky volcanic ash (tufa) and red clay

Microclimate Warm mornings, intense sunlight, cooler than the valley floor

Number of wineries about 50 Number of growers 38

Grapes White Sauvignon Blanc Red Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Syrah, St-Macaire

I spent several days travelling its twisting roads to find out why the wines taste the way they do. As I drove up Deer Park Road, to the northeast of St Helena, the air seemed to grow clearer and the forested terrain wilder, small family-run wineries and patches of vineyards tucked in the woods and clustered in several distinct areas around the town of Angwin.

My essential companion guide was the Howell Mountain map in Antonio Galloni’s Vinous map series, which details who owns what and where in a place with few signs.

A long history

As we picnicked by the 27ha WS Keyes vineyard, La Jota winemaker Chris Carpenter filled me in on Howell Mountain’s colourful history. Both the vineyard and nearby La Jota winery, now owned by Jackson Family Wines, have roots in the 19th century and their wines won medals at the 1900 Paris Exposition. After Prohibition, though, winemaking didn’t revive as quickly as elsewhere in Napa, partly because the Seventh-day Adventist community of Angwin forbids drinking alcohol.

The key modern pioneer is white- moustached, cowboy-hatted traditionalist Randy Dunn of Dunn Vineyards, who’s made outstanding, ageworthy Cabernets at his bucolic compound since 1978. He helped to create the appellation, along with grower Mike Beatty and a couple of others. ‘It’s really different up here,’ Dunn says, as we taste his latest release. ‘But back then, it was mostly about Zinfandel.’

Several waves of vintners swept in over the following decades, including the former owners of Château La Mission Haut-Brion, who founded Chateau Woltner in 1980, and later sold the property.

In the 1990s and 2000s, higher prices for Napa Cabernets (and growing interest in mountain terroir) inspired valley wineries such as Abreu, Cakebread Cellars and Heitz Cellar, as well as newcomers such as Arkenstone and Adamvs, to snap up land. Hillside vineyards are more difficult and costly to plant and produce lower yields, so the return had to be worth it.

Lay of the land

‘The wines are made by elevation,’ explains Sean Capiaux, winemaker at O’Shaughnessy. Its luxurious modern glass and stone winery and steep amphitheatre of vines sit at 610m. Of Napa’s five mountain appellations, Howell Mountain is the only one whose boundaries are based on altitude.

The lower boundary begins at 427m, above the fog inversion layer, so vines are exposed to about two hours more of intense sunlight per day than those on the valley floor. Altitude keeps daytime temperatures cooler, with milder day to night temperature swings, plus it’s windier and wetter. Spring comes later – in 2008, Dunn Vineyards lost half its crop after four days of -7°C temperatures – with later harvests, too.

Walk any vineyard and you’ll tread thin volcanic soil that’s rockier than in other Napa mountain appellations. It’s packed with white volcanic ash, red iron-rich soils and, sometimes, midnight-black obsidian.

‘The combination of soil, elevation and climate gives low yields of tiny berries, with a higher skin to juice ratio, regardless of the grape or clone,’ says Randy’s son Mike Dunn. That, plus the extra sunlight, translates into wines with incredible intensity, richness and tannic structure. Of recent vintages, I’d single out 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010 and 2005.

Defining a style

A few wineries make polished Sauvignon Blancs, but classic big reds are Howell Mountain’s stock-in trade, especially expensive Cabernet Sauvignons and blends. I’m a huge fan of the few berry-ish, silky- textured Cabernet Francs and wish there were more. Zinfandel and Petite Sirah can be serious, succulent, spicy and savoury. Structure defines Howell Mountain Cabernets. The biggest problem, according to Frank Dotzler, former owner of Outpost, is ‘how to tame the tannins and make wines approachable without taking away character’. In the past I’ve tasted many with such grippy tannins that I wondered if they would ever come around.

Solutions differ. The Dunns have always aged their Cabernet in barrel for 32 months, while Danielle Cyrot at Cade winery, part of the PlumpJack Group, swears by hot fermentations with six to seven days on the skins, gentle extractions and ageing in heavily toasted barrels.

Some wineries pick several times; others end up with fruit bombs, with alcohol levels topping 15%. The Dunns think high alcohol masks subtle flavours and they de-alcoholise slightly in very ripe years. It works.

But the best Cabernets are memorable: concentrated, intense, violet- and berry- scented, with broad chewy tannins (in a good way), serious structure and a red fruit character with mineral overtones. They’re wines with power, not soft elegance, and judging by vertical tastings I’ve attended, they need to age for at least a decade.

Napa has become a hotbed of environmental tensions over land use, especially on hillsides, and the conflict continues to play out on Howell Mountain. Can it retain its lush forests and wild charm?

‘If development goes unchecked,’ warns Randy Dunn, one of Napa Valley’s key pro- preservation players, ‘everything will be cut down.’ Much as I love the wines of Howell Mountain, I hope that doesn’t happen.

Howell Mountain: 10 names to know

Adamvs

Certified organic and biodynamic, this 31ha property is owned by Steve and Denise Adams of St-Emilion’s Château Fonplégade. The small winery is sleek with high-design architecture; the three Cabernets, made by Philippe Melka, are equally so, with a plush mouthfeel and softer structure than most in the AVA.

Arkenstone

One of the hot new wineries. Founded in 1988, its first wine release was 2006. Sam Kaplan makes a polished, refined, soft-textured Estate Cabernet blend and an aromatic Sauvignon Blanc that’s one of the top high-end examples in Napa.

Cade

The ultimate in eco-friendliness, Cade winery is built from recycled materials and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold-certified. In 2016, owner PlumpJack Group secured its expansion by acquiring the nearby Ladera winery and its huge vineyard.

Dunn Vineyards

Very much a family enterprise, Randy Dunn’s bucolic winery compound reminds me of what Napa used to be like. He and son Mike make gutsy, uncompromising Cabernets using traditionalist methods and are committed to keeping alcohol levels under 14%.

La Jota

Jackson Family Wines, with heritage winery La Jota and nearby historic WS Keyes vineyard, is another significant landowner. Winemaker Chris Carpenter captures a more approachable style for La Jota’s four wines. The standouts are the Cabernet Franc and La Jota’s WS Keyes Vineyard Merlot, plus cult wine Lokoya’s Howell Mountain bottling.

O’Shaughnessy Estate Winery

Founded by Betty O’Shaughnessy in 1996, this 49ha estate is unique in growing eight Bordeaux red varieties, including St-Macaire, Gros Verdot and Carmenère. Sean Capiaux crafts a luxurious, complex Cabernet blend in a stunning stone and glass winery where music soothes wines ageing in barrels.

Outpost

Now owned by AXA Millésimes, this is a cult winery with breathtaking views that takes Zinfandel as seriously as it does its two dark, deep, super-intense Cabernet Sauvignons and a Cabernet blend. It also makes a silky-textured Grenache. Winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown farms its two vineyards organically.

Red Cap Vineyards

The tiny vineyard planted in 2003 gained a reputation after J Davies (the red wine label of Schramsberg) bottled a vibrant single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from the site. Owner Tom Altemus makes a tiny amount under his own label that’s surprisingly harmonious for the AVA.

Retro Cellars

The project of Dunn Vineyards’ Mike Dunn and his wife Kara (first vintage 2003) focuses primarily on superb, serious Petite Sirah – though I’ve also tasted their spicy, delicious Peloursin. Vines are head-pruned and winemaking is traditional as the label aims to be a throwback to earlier times (retro, get it?).

Turley Wine Cellars

Turley Wine Cellars acquired its own Howell Mountain vineyard, whose grapes go into a special appellation-designated bottling, as have many other valley floor wineries including Abreu, Dana Estates and Heitz Cellar. Turley makes some of the AVA’s most distinctive Zinfandels from its Rattlesnake Ridge (at 732m one of the AVA’s highest vineyards) and Dragon Vineyard sites.

Elin McCoy is an award-winning journalist and author who writes for Bloomberg News

Elin’s top wines from Howell Mountain:

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