Cade Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is a tiny selection of the best barrels, and it's another just about perfect 2021, offering a saturated purple hue as well as an awesome bouquet of black and blue fruits, spicy oak, graphite, and iron, with a kiss of Graves-like scorched earth. With full-bodied richness, a deep, layered, awesome mid-palate, and building tannins, this classic, age-worthy Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon deserves a solid 5-7 years of bottle age and will see its 30th birthday in fine form.

A selection of the winery's best barrels, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve offers up hints of mocha and dark chocolate set against a backdrop of blueberry fruit. Some subtle herbal nuances creep in as well-sage and thyme-also cedar and perhaps even pine needles. It's a complex array of flavors and aromas delivered by a full-bodied, richly concentrated wine that's never hard, just plush and velvety from start to finish.

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve is a dense, full-throttle Howell Mountain Cabernet. Inky dark fruit, liquified rocks, bittersweet chocolate, menthol and lavender infuse the 2021 with tremendous depth and intensity. Here, too, winemaker Danielle Cyrot has done a terrific job in taming the formidable Howell Mountain tannins that are present in so many wines.

A hyperripe version, with a gush of blackberry, fig and acai fruit that struggles for form, cloaked in a heavy-handed layer of melted black licorice through the languid finish. This one has jumped the shark. Drink now through 2027. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 1,440 cases made.