„…tiefe, schwarzbeerige, fleischige Nase, sehr warme Frucht, feine Süße, Cassis satt, Oliven, schöne Süße, auch Kirschen satt dahinter, Schoko, klare Frucht, sehr präzise, Schoko, sehr schöne Länge“ (08/2024)
Decanter: 97 Punkte
The Lokoya Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced entirely from their estate-owned W.S. Keyes Vineyard at 556m. A plethora of warming brown spices like cinnamon and coriander are interlaced with cassis, black cherry, and blackberry fruits tinged with notes of liquorice and toasty oak spices redolent of sweet clove with tobacco nuances. Powerful and robust chocolaty tannins are layered with a thread of red stone volcanic minerality. Despite all the power and intensity of the tannins and mineral character, the palate finds release rather quickly because of the wine's vivid, crisp, and savoury acidity, which layers in freshness and extends the full-bodied finish. Chris Carpenter makes the Lokoya wines, and the label is owned by the Jackson Family. There are four 100% Cabernet Sauvignon wines in the portfolio, each from a different mountain: Diamond Mountain, Howell Mountain, Spring Mountain, and Mt. Veeder. The winemaking is the same for all the wines, with mostly native yeast fermentation, pump-overs by hand, malolactic fermentation in barrel and ageing for 22 months in 90% new French oak. What separates these wines is not style but place. Carpenter believes that fine Napa Valley Cabernet wines are not only defined by the soils of their sites but also by the Bay Area Pacific breezes that roll in and out daily, cooling the valley from the south to the north in the evenings and from the north to the south in the mornings. These mountains define cooling as any place in the valley and the diurnal temperature shifts at higher elevations create an equilibrium where climatic fluctuations aren't as pronounced as fruit grown below the fog lines.
- Jonathan Cristaldi (07/2024)
