A big thanks to Bill Tex Landreth for reminding me about Black Sears on Howell Mountain when I asked for Howell Mountain recommendations!
I began corresponding with Chris Jambois of Black Sears a couple of weeks prior to our visit and due to our itinerary, Chris was more than accommodating in hosting us on a Monday morning, a typical day that is closed for visitors. A very big thank you to Chris for being accommodating.
We started our Monday leaving Healdsburg with a lovely drive through the Alexander Valley followed by the long trek to the very top of Howell Mountain to Black Sears. Such a quiet drive void of the traffic found on Silverado Trail and Highway 29. As we wound our way up, we passed over the cattle guard onto the Black Sears Vineyard grounds and pulled up to the Red Barn to meet Chris where we were immediately welcomed by “Lou” Chris’ dog who joined us on our entire visit!
Chris came out and met us and offered us to taste inside or outside with a little hike. The weather was beautiful that morning, hovering in the low 60’s with next to zero humidity, so we chose to taste outside. We set out on a stroll with a 2011 Black Sears Estate Cabernet Sauvignon along the north side of the vineyard that overlooked the Zinfandel grapes, such a lovely site to see! Chris pointed out which blocks they kept and which were sold off. Once my wife downloads her pictures I will add them to this post. We proceeded on to a flat area, covered by trees where some benches, a table and a sink had been installed but had a perfect clearing that overlooked the vineyards to the east while the sun began to rise and warm the morning.
Chris shared stories with us of how he came to Black Sears, what it’s like to transition from the life of a “professional” to that of a farmer, how he and his wife met, the bear on the property and many other stories. We enjoyed a tasting of his 2006 Howell Mountain Red Wine, a blend of Cab Franc, Cab Sauvingon. We wrapped up the tasting with his 2012 Zinfandel, a zesty, peppery wine that I really enjoyed and am now regretting I didn’t purchase, thank goodness for FedEx! Chris did us the pleasure of taking a handful of pictures of my wife and I and we then proceeded to head back to the main property for another adventure.
We then made our way through the crush pad area where many of the winemaking process was explained. Thomas Rivers Brown makes the wine at Black Sears and he also uses the facility to make and house several of the other wines he makes for other wineries in the area. From here we went on to visit the caves that were dug out about 13 - 14 years ago where Chris showed us the bottles and kegs of wine used to top up barrels, we had a chance to see many of the barrels of wine produced for other vineyards by Thomas and then finishing up where the auger bore it’s way into the Earth to create the caves which have the ability to house up to 7000 barrels.
As we were leaving we had a chance to meet Chris’ wife and children who we thanked for allowing him the time to break away and show us around the grounds and taste their wines. We had a fantastic time and will most certainly return the next time we make it to Howell Mountain.