99pts Jeb Dunnuck

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is a tiny selection of the best barrels, and it's another just about perfect 2021, offering a saturated purple hue as well as an awesome bouquet of black and blue fruits, spicy oak, graphite, and iron, with a kiss of Graves-like scorched earth. With full-bodied richness, a deep, layered, awesome mid-palate, and building tannins, this classic, age-worthy Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon deserves a solid 5-7 years of bottle age and will see its 30th birthday in fine form.

96pts Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

A selection of the winery's best barrels, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve offers up hints of mocha and dark chocolate set against a backdrop of blueberry fruit. Some subtle herbal nuances creep in as well—sage and thyme—also cedar and perhaps even pine needles. It's a complex array of flavors and aromas delivered by a full-bodied, richly concentrated wine that's never hard, just plush and velvety from start to finish.

Winemaker Notes

The 2021 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon has aromas of blackberry, blueberry, black cherry, dark chocolate, coffee, vanilla bean, graham cracker, and black currant. In the palate are flavors of boysenberry, raspberry coolie, chocolate covered espresso beans, brown spices, and red cherry. The tannins are structured and elegant. The density and mouthfeel of this wine really showcase the silky sumptuous full-bodied nature of this wine that is Howell Mountain. The 2018 vintage was bountiful and the resulting wine is full of great fruit, mouthwatering texture, and lots of spice.