“After 50 years, Michael Broadbent is still teaching us how to drink wine.” – Washington Post

What a week this has been, dear Operatives, a sellout World’s End Beckstoffer Cab, a 99-pointer sweet wine like no other, a Thomas Rivers Brown cult Chardonnay at more than half off… and now, as if all that is not enough commotion, we have something on this quiet Sunday that is very, very dear to our hearts.

The closest a wine expert can get to a deity is Michael Broadbent. An architect turned Master of Wine in 1960, he became a pioneer by merging the worlds of fine wine and auctions in 1966. And just a couple of years after that, he penned the definitive book on wine tasting as an art and a science, still a relevant reference. Another ‘bible’ of his is a collection of tasting notes back to the 17th century, by a man who is yet to be surpassed for having chronicled thousands of old and rare wines most of us dream of.

The humble family they are, his renowned importer son Bartholomew, under his Broadbent Selections umbrella, quietly released a series of Napa Cabs to honor his father’s heritage. Michael Broadbent, after all, cofounded the Auction Napa Valley with Robert Mondavi in 1981.

It should be clear by now that a wine that honors the Great Auctioneer is cut off the same cloth, even as a value proposal that is quite uncommon for a Howell Mountain Reserve Cab. Broadbent commissioned winemaker Trevor Sheehan of Precision Wine Company to assemble some of the best fruit and the wine inside shows it. Leaping out of the glass with bold hints of warm cassis, blackberry preserve, and stewed plums, it morphs into nuances of cigar box, warm pie baking spices, and scorched earth. The full-bodied palate is coated with densely packed, expressive black and blue fruits, supported by plush tannins, and plenty of freshness, finishing long and complex. A total jaw drop showing for $34. Wow, just wow…

As Wine Enthusiast wrote “thanks to his many contributions to the wine world, Broadbent’s legacy will live on for years to come, still helping to inform and educate future generations of wine lovers.”

That spirit is pervasively present in this Howell beauty, here today, gone tomorrow.

92 Points – Wine Enthusiast “This wine is juicy, rich, and generous with flavors of blackberry, raspberry, mixed spices and freshly cracked black pepper. Notes of cocoa and chocolate liqueur emerge following each sip. Fine-grained, while abundant, tannin and a lingering finish make this a persistent Cabernet Sauvignon.”