Adamvs, Howell Mountain – Napa Valley (California) Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

 Equity investors Denise and Stephen Adams got their wine feet wet by purchasing properties in Saint-Émilion (notably Château Fonplégade) before establishing Adamvs in 2008 on Howell Mountain.  Their current consulting winemaker is Philippe Melka, a French-born Napa Valley resident who admits he produces more wine for American owners in the Valley than for the many French who have purchased and operate properties there.  Melka is certainly a good choice, as evidenced in this Cabernet with its Bordeaux-like sprinklings of auxiliary grapes.  The result is a fascinating, complex wine that will age well, but I wouldn’t want to miss drinking it now.  Howell Mountain probably imparts more savory, garrigue-like flavors into its wines than any other Napa sub-app, as is the case here.  Teres has beautiful aromas of dark berries and Manhattan-worthy plump cherries, and this is reflected in the wine itself.  One first notices the lean, leathery, blackberry-and-cherry flavors with the savory elements alongside. The flavor accelerates at the finish, blossoming into more generous fruit in the aftertaste.  I am a sucker for integrated wood notes, and this one blends them in beautifully with graceful tannins.  Certainly a complex wine, but not at all a reluctant one.