Jeb Dunnuck

2016 Castiel Estate

by Jeb Dunnuck

Showing similar to last year, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is a terrific wine offering full-bodied aromas and flavors of creme de cassis, tobacco leaf, incense, and gravelly minerality. Pure, balanced, and elegant, it's a terrific wine that will keep for two decades.

Rating: 94 pts
Updated: 1/31/20

As with most 2015 to 2016 comparisons, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is slightly more classic and elegant, with textbook
Cabernet Sauvignon creme de cassis and blackberry fruits, full body, ultra­fine tannins, and complex notes of graphite, wet stone, and some gravelly rninerality. It's holding things slightly closer to the vest compared to the more extroverted 2015, but it's certainly in the same ballpark. Both the 2015 and 2016 are brilliant wines I'd be thrilled to drink.

Rating: 94+ pts
Date: 1/31/19