2010 Dunn Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain- USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain (7/1/2015)
Don’t know why, but I just don’t drink Dunn that much…only own a single bottle of 87 HM…but after trying this 10 HM….I NEED more Dunn in the cellar!! Amazingly the first thing you notice in this wine….is how smooth and soft it is! I was expecting some tannic teeth enamel stripping beast….instead you get this pillow soft mouthful of silk! But this isn’t a Mr. Softy…it has a deep kind of structure to it….after the silk, there is a firmness of graphite minerals, spicy cedar pencil finish. The fruit is dark with blackberries and cherries…currant…ripe, yet totally dry! Savory all the way….with wonderful tasty flavors of licorice, desert sage brush, chocolate covered blueberries, dusty cellar floor earth…….all in perfect balance. Amazing at such a young age….I’m blown away! (98 pts.)
thanks for the note…we had a great visit to Dunn last month and I posted a little bit about it…the more recent wines are certainly more approachable than in the past…but still destined to be cellar beauties IMO…don’t overlook the NV bottling, most and sometimes all of the fruit comes from their HM vineyards
I am shocked. I would have expected someone to implode from drinking a Dunn HM so young. I had heard that they are being made in a more approachable style, but this is still shocking. I’ve had them at 20 years that were still too tight.
Glorious wines, and I agree;it’s good thinking to remember the Napa bottling. And even for HM (notwithstanding Antonio Galloni’s Vinous retrospective tasting, which was chock full of praise) the wines remain so fairly priced; particularly some off vintages, which can also be great!
Had the 90 a couple of weeks ago from a 750 and it was beautiful and absolutely ready with nice unerlying structure for the future. The 91 tasted side by side was way more tight and astringent and in need of at least 5 more years of cellaring.
I had the '10 this past Friday and I agree that it is a great wine. It is not as fruit forward as the '10 O’Shaughnessey, more old world style. At times it drank like a '10 Brdx and other times like a '90 Brdx. It was constantly evolving in the glass, very complex. Next time I have this it will be with the '10 O’Shaughnessey. Since my sweet spot might be somewhere between the two I may resort to a little blending experiment.
For you Coravin fans…this is a perfect bottle to access!! That’s what I did in that first note…did another extraction a week ago…and now popped the cork…,the wine is just as amazing as day one! In fact…I am now in search for a case…just a prefect Cab for me, that will have no problem aging out my lifetime! You can Coravin the hell out of this sucker…it’s Timex…takes a lickin, keeps on tickin!!
The Wine & Spirits magazine article I read that mentioned Mr Dunn’s use of alcohol/acids alterations was from 2001, but he very well may have been employing those techniques for years prior…
