Palate

Like Smaug’s Lonely Mountain in ‘The Hobbit’, Howell Mountain is the lone mountain source of Lokoya grapes on the Vaca side of Napa Valley. Just as Smaug sits on a hill of gold, our estate, W.S. Keyes Vineyard, produces pure gold in the form of Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2011 glimmers with blackberry and currants, dark chocolate and toast, the forest after a rain, minerality, and a weighty mid-body.

Growing Conditions

1,825 ft. vineyard elevation

Harvest

hand-harvested, low yields of 2 tons per acre.

Bottling

bottled unfined and unfiltered

Aging

21 months in 99% new French oak