Hindsight is a boutique producer, and this comes from their estate vineyard perched at 2,000 feet up on Howell Mountain neighboring Beringer’s Steinhauer Ranch, just around the corner from Dunn Vineyards. Currently Michael Weis makes the wines, and he got started at Mondavi before a lengthy 26-year tenure at Groth. The 2016s were made by his equally venerable, now retired predecessor Jac Cole, with a resume spanning Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Charles Krug, and Spring Mountain Winery.

This is ripe, full-bodied, and creamy - in other words exactly what your soul craves. Super integrated and polished front to back. Gently extracted but not overtly done with dark blue, black, and red fruit, plums, blueberry, vanilla, cassis, and a hint of sweet black licorice unraveling in layer upon layer. Smooth tannins moonwalk across your palate with velvety softness. Just prime stuff, really. It’s the grip on the finish that speaks of the Howell factor here, long, complex, and simply peerless.

Zero press. And that’s a good thing, otherwise, this would have been long gone. If you’re the type who reads between the lines, this Antonio Galloni’s Vinous recap says it all: “Napa Valley enjoyed an extraordinary vintage in 2016. The bottled 2016s are every bit as viscerally thrilling as they were from barrel. Best of all, 2016 is a captivating vintage from top to bottom, with a bevy of stunning wines for every palate and budget, as well as a number of bottles that are destined to become icons.”

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate echoes “as a wine critic it is only natural that, when preparing a vintage report, I am constantly looking for something to criticize… I’ve now tasted more than 2,000 (and counting) 2016 Napa Valley wines in bottle over the past couple of months and can only report - sorry - this is a particularly tough vintage to criticize.”

We’ll spare you the “in hindsight you should’ve bought more” stuff …and just say this: if you dig Howell Mountain Cab (who doesn’t?) you need this in your life.