Castiel Estate, Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon
Offering from Somm Select February 2022
This muscular and luxurious 2018 is Howell Mountain Cabernet at its finest, and when you learn about the dream team behind it, you immediately understand how an estate whose first commercial vintage was 2014 can deliver such an assured, perfectly representative wine. Veteran Napa viticulturist Jim Barbour handles the vineyard side, while in the cellar, it’s star winemaker Celia Welch, who, in addition to crafting Barbour’s namesake wines, has made wine for the likes of Staglin, Scarecrow, Kelly Fleming, and her own label, Corra. A whopping 382 cases were produced of this hand-farmed and hand-crafted wine, so act fast if you’d like up to four bottles today. This is cutting-edge Cabernet with a big, bright future ahead of it—in 15 years, when this bottle will still be singing, you can say you “knew them when.”
