A bold statement but true: Beatty Ranch is THE top vineyard of Howell Mountain.
At the top of the mountain, at 1800 feet, and with Cabernet vines planted in 1970, it was indeed Mike Beatty who got Howell Mountain’s other few pioneers (like Randy Dunn) together to form the AVA. On the vineyard map, it looks like Beatty Ranch is the sun, with all the other Howell Mountain vineyards orbiting it.
It’s a big vineyard, and they sell most of their fruit to many of Napa’s top wineries. Nickel & Nickel, for instance makes a Beatty Ranch Cabernet that they sell for $225.
But the winery keeps the best part for themselves (and says out loud that they do!), and makes a very small quantity of this amazing Cabernet.
Aside from being from some of the oldest Cabernet vines on the mountain, it’s also all Clone 6 – widely recognized as both the best and most difficult Cabernet clone, with low yields of tiny berries and ultra-concentrated fruit.
As Lewin on Wine explains:
Yields with clone 6 are so pitiful compared to the others that most producers won’t grow it, and certainly it does not seem to be economically advisable.
