Taste of Howell Mountain

Any recommendations or “must visits” for the taste of Howell Mountain this Sat?

ADAMVS Dunn Vineyards Paravel Wines
Aloft Wine Flora Springs Winery & Vineyards Pestoni Family Estate Winery
AMPL Wines Haber Family Vineyards Piña Napa Valley
Angwin Estate Vineyards HALL Wines Predecessor Estate Wines
Arkenstone Howell at the Moon Winery Red Cap Vineyards
BACA Wines Howell Mountain Vineyards Red Thread Wines
Bravante Vineyards KrisTodd Vineyards Retro Cellars
Bremer Family Winery La Jota Vineyard Co. Robert Craig Winery
Castiel Estate Lamborn Family Vineyards Seek
Charles Krug Winery Mondavi Sisters Collection Selah Wines
Cimarossa Moone-Tsai Wines SPENCE
Clif Family Winery Neal Family Vineyards Stressed Vines Cellars
Dark Matter Wines O’Shaughnessy Estate Winery Summit Lake Vineyards & Winery
Davis Estates Outpost Estate Winery Tobias Vineyards
Duckhorn Vineyards Paraduxx Wines Zakin Family Estate

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Larry,

Check out Bremer. Family owned. Its been a while since I had one but a nice property and nice visit and reasonably priced. Also believe they release their reds late (looking at website 2015 is current). We always enjoyed and I do not know of a single review for their wines as that is not their thing.

Selfishly - would love to hear your thoughts on this and others.

That list looks pretty incomplete. Anyway, why not taste as many as possible? I went a few years ago, tasted my favorites such as Robert Craig, checked out the famous and more crowded tables like Dunn, but then also noted a couple tables with zero guests tasting. One was Treebottom, so I went over, and the wine was very, very good and have been a customer since. Glad I gave them a chance. There is a lot to like there!

Always been a Red Cap fan. Gonna visit Tom when I head up for Beserkerfest next month

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Weird, when I quote you a bunch more wineries appear, but I can’t see them in the original post. For me, I would definitely hit Dunn, La Jota, O’Shaughnessy and Pina. Flora Springs, Outpost and Robert Craig would be in my second tier. There are quite a few that I haven’t heard of before. Enjoy your tasting!

Lamborn and Black Sears are my favs. O’Shaughnessy is also quite good. Not familiar with many on your list though. Some on the list are not Howell Mnt wineries, but source fruit from it, so I’d probably skip those.

Regardless, it sounds like it will be a fun event. I went to it many years ago and enjoyed it.

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Are you a baseball fan? If so, be sure to taste Selah.

I understand this comment, but I wouldn’t discount them off hand. A few years ago this event came to Dallas. Most were pouring current releases; delicious 2013s and 2014s. But a bit late in the event Piña Napa Valley pulled out a 2003 that was the highlight of the night for me. So ya never know

Also great call on Lamborn (Mike and Terri are Lovely people) and O’Shaugnessy.

tobias, dark matter, neal were some of my favorites last time had a bunch of Howell mountain wines about a year ago

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Does anyone have a single ticket for this? I will be in town and part of my group is booked for it and they really want me to come.

Give Zakin a shot. I tried them at the last Howell Mtn event and really liked them. Melka is the winemaker. I wish they were less expensive; I’d be a buyer.

Of those not yet mentioned, I would add Cimarossa.

Any old timers on here remember those Lemon-Chabot Ranch wines Ed Sbragia used to make off of Howell Mountain back in the day for Beringer? Damn, those were magnificent wines.

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I don’t recall having that wine but I really liked the Bancroft Ranch Howell Mountain Merlot he made 30 years ago.

That Bancroft Ranch Merlot was so beautiful. I was a tour guide at Beringer in my early 20’s. Tor Kenward came in to train us. I think he was their marketing guy back then? Or maybe he was in sales. He’d come in once in a while and conduct pretty good training seminars. Got to taste a lot of Ed’s wines back then. That was Beringer’s heyday. Such a special place.

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They still make a limited amount of SV Chabot and it is still pretty terrific IMO.

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I was under the impression that the merlot was replanted, hence , at least in part, the decrease in quality. But the last few vintages have received bigger critic sores, so I am hopeful that the quality is back up. Guess I need to taste some!

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Have a bunch of the 1996. Drinking super well and in no hurry.

Beringer also has other really good properties that they source from on Howell……but, they do mot generally participate in Taste of HM for some reason. I do not know why.

Agreed.
My recommendation for Howell Mountain is to favor older vintages.

+1 on Bremer rec.