not a tasting note as much as a note of admiration. recently picked up a nice cache of pristine older heitz, mayacamas, and dunn napa from the 70s and 80s. local place that hasn’t moved since release. fills are great across the board and cracked the 83 dunn napa last night. dark ruby, almost zero bricking. low alcohol, brisk acids, and moderate tannins. green and deep nose of real cabernet. as a burg drinker, i rarely drink cabs of any sort, but this was just so balanced and pure it spoke to me. loved it. age your wines!
Is there such a thing as an “over the hill” Dunn? Seriously, either bottling? Though I only go back to 85 with them, every older one has been a heavyweight champ.
Those older Dunns are indestructible! I’ve sourced a few from the 80s and all have been fantastic. 88’ was the WOTN upset a couple years ago in a tasting against several big Napa names. Been saving a 85’ mag for a special occasion. The bottle is so pretty looking with the painted etched glass.
So where in Napa did the Dunn Napa grapes grow and in whose vineyard?
Hint: If I am not mistaken all, or a significant percentage came from the same vineyard sourced for Phelps Insignia, Viader, Merus, Newton, Pahlmeyer and a few others.
i’m in the woods on these producers and vineyards - can you please fill us in?
as for holding up, i know that howell mountain has the rep of never being ready, but the few i’ve had from this pristine cellar on the napa bottling have all been good to go - balanced, airy, and with good mature fruit, but not dried. very easy drinking.
If the '85 mag is a Howell Mtn, I suggest you have a back up when you open it. Looking at notes here and on CT, there have obviously been some great bottles enjoyed over the years, but there are a few notes that aren’t so glowing. Here’s a comment I posted here about 18 months ago … “I’ve found a disappointing amount of bottle variation in the '85 Dunn Howell Mountain. I bought a case of 750s, 2 mags and a 5L directly from Dunn on release, and I’ve probably poured more than half down the sink. The bottles didn’t taste clean, with dominating flavors of pine resin and turpentine.”
In my experience, it was only the Howell Mtn that showed the great bottle variation. I went through a similar quantity of the '85 Napa (minus the 5L) and they were much more consistent. While a typical long-lived Dunn, the '85, at least to me, seemed at it’s peak at around 25 years old, or early in this decade. I’d suggest you try one of yours soon.
