1985 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

Since my barrel tastings, I have never had as much enthusiasm for the 1985 regular bottling and the Howell Mountain. However, both are at least a decade away from maturity, with the Howell Mountain needing an additional 15 years, especially if it has been stored in a cool cellar. Both wines exhibit extremely dark, saturated purple colors, full body, and frightfully high tannin levels. They remain as closed and tightly knit as any Cabernet Sauvignon I have tasted. The Napa bottling was more attractive and easier to understand. The Howell Mountain offers a huge mouthful of highly extracted, sweet, chewy fruit buttressed by a formidable tannin level. These are unquestionably impressive wines that have been built for the long term. In retrospect, it seems to me that Dunn's Cabernets hit the highest peaks in the hottest vintages, such as 1982, 1984 and 1992.