2004 O’Shaughnessy Cab. Howell Mt. - A producer I have come to respect and enjoy over the years. Their wines are age worthy and their 2001 and 2002 are drinking beautifully now. I have had the 2004 a good number of times and each tasting in consistent with the previous one. I love mountain fruit and Howell Mt. offers some of the best values in Napa. O’Shaughnessy has two Cab’s they offer. One from Howell Mt ($75) and one from Mt. Veeder ($95). At $75 I believe O’Shaughnessy Howe offers one of the better values for the quality in this price range. The wine was paired with an excellent filet mignon and was the perfect companion. The color is a deep inky purple, just the way I like my Napa cabs. I will caution that the nose of this wine at the onset is very alcoholic and not very pleasant. I aerated with a vintiri and let the wine decant for about 1 hour. The nose was overpowered by the alcohol and I couldn’t get past it. After about 20 minutes in the glass, the alcoholic nose cleared way for a nice berry scent, but still wasn’t overly impressive. Tasting the wine was another matter. While fruit forward, it isn’t as big of a bomb as some other Napa Cabs. The taste was smooth for a young wine and the mid-palate was rather pleasant and it gained a bit of weight with air time and it gave me that jammy fruit taste in my mouth. The finish was decent, but not overly long. The wine showed so much better when paired with the filet. It is definitely a FOOD WINE. Too much to be consumed on it’s own at the moment. This is a powerful wine that will surely benefit from years of additional cellaring. I would say this wine won’t get anywhere near its prime for another 5 years. It has backbone and structure, this will be a great wine for aging. Very pleased overall and O’Shaughnessy is becoming one of my favorite “under the radar” wineries. I purposely left one glass worth of wine in the decanter to do a “day two tasting”. Will update once I taste the wine later today. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I find that the O’Shaughnessy 2004 Howell is exactly as you describe. All vintages that I have tried of this wine have very similar characteristics. The first and foremost is the heavy alcohol on the nose. It turns many people off. I have found that this wine needs hours of decanting to really be what it can be. I only recommend this one to folks who love Howell Mtn wines, which I do. I ordered this in a restaurant for clients last month and I was the only one that enjoyed it. You definitely have to want the Howell characteristics.
The one thing that really makes this wine shine at this stage is the pairing with food. I also have bought this wine at a restaurant in the last year (Porter House in NYC). After being open for over an hour , it complimented the beef dishes very nice. I have to also say that the 2001 and 2002 at this stage do not exhibit that alcoholic nose that is predominant in later vintages. Aging will do this wine justice. It is a great wine. The Mt Veeder is that much better
I hope it stay’s under the radar so guys like you and I can keep buying it at reasonable prices. I have a bunch of 04 and 05, most of them will lay on their sides for a number of years
Alan