TN: Musings on the '87 Dunn Napa Cabernet
 

As steak rarely graces our dinner table, we've found fewer opportunities
in the past few years to open the CA Cabs in our cellar. So, I jumped
at the chance to open one when Jean recently prepared lamb chops for dinner.

1987 Dunn Napa Cabernet Sauvignon
c: dark garnet with no sign of browning at the edges
n: soy sauce, berry fruit, cedar and licorice
p: tannins fully resolved, full bodied, soy sauce and mushrooms
overlaying berryish fruit, a lot of cedar and great balance and structure

A fully mature Dunn Cab? Say it ain't so, though at 18 years of age,
Randy Dunn's more forward bottling can be forgiven if it's not still
forbiddingly tannic. This bottle, from what was arguably the best
vintage of the '80s, was in pristine form, from the perfect cork (why
can't Bordeaux producers find corks this good? The wine had stained
only the lowest 1-2 mm of the cork, the rest looking as good as new) to
its youthful appearance. I served it blind to Jean, who guessed that it
was a Bordeaux from the mid-'90s (not unreasonable, given its acidity
and young appearance if one ignored the preponderence of secondary
aromas. When it was unveiled, her response was an incredulous "Dunn on
Tuesday??" It was a treat to drink, and will help us keep our hands off
the Howell Mountain bottlings for another decade or two. ;-)

Mark Lipton

I have been staring down a bottle of this in the cellar lately
thinking that it would be just about right. Thanks for confirming
this Mark !
Bob

> It was a treat to drink, and will help us keep our hands off
>the Howell Mountain bottlings for another decade or two. ;-)
>

In article >,
b becker > wrote:

> I have been staring down a bottle of this in the cellar lately
> thinking that it would be just about right. Thanks for confirming
> this Mark !
> Bob
>
> > It was a treat to drink, and will help us keep our hands off
> >the Howell Mountain bottlings for another decade or two. ;-)
> >
>
>

Just had a 1985 Dunn Howell Mountain. Was quite full still even young
with no brown edges and deep garnet color.