Spring on Howell Mountain is doing what spring here does. Arriving sideways, in fits and starts, before surrendering to something that already feels like summer. Here is where things stand.
Barbarous: Year Two
The Barbarous program continues with a 2023 vintage. A larger crop in 2023 gave us a little more flexibility with block 8, our newest five-acre planting. We loved the first iteration enough to stay with a co-fermented blend of all three varietals. But because we also wanted to expand the Estate Cab Franc and pull some of the Cabernet Sauvignon from block 8 into the Estate Cab alongside the See clone from block 7, the blend shifted slightly. The 2023 is 42% Cab Franc, 35% Cab Sauvignon, 23% Merlot.
Members will be able to add Barbarous to their fall allocations. We should also have enough for an online release to the general mailing list later this year.
Estate Cab Franc: Finally
If you have visited Black Sears in the last decade, you have heard the Cab Franc saga. One acre. Most of it lost to the Glass Fire. The replanted vines sliding down the mountain in 2023 after a season of heavy snow and rain. It has not been straightforward.
The 2023 vintage changed that. The additional acre of Cab Franc in block 8, combined with the sizable crop load, meant we could finally bottle enough to fill all member allocations. And — this is new — we think there will be enough this fall for members to add additional bottles to their allocations. Chris and Ashley may even get to try one.
Estate Merlot: Beginning with 2024
Beginning with the 2024 vintage, Black Sears will release a limited Estate Merlot. Case production will be comparable to the Estate Cab Franc.
Merlot in Napa Valley has been quietly disappearing since that single line of dialogue in Sideways — widely misunderstood as a condemnation of the grape rather than a character's personal grudge — reshaped what people ordered and what wineries planted. Most Merlot since has gone into blends or been pulled out entirely. Only the truly serious plantings have survived. Merlot in Napa in 2026 is a lot like Zinfandel on Howell Mountain: if it is still being produced, it is probably pretty good, because everything else has conspired against it.
Power Lines Going Underground
Pacific Gas and Electric is putting the power lines on Howell Mountain in the ground. This has been a long time coming. Following the Glass Fire, we put approximately a mile of line that runs through the Black Sears ranch underground at our own expense. PG&E is now completing the rest of it.
The practical effect: fewer outages during fire season, which correlates directly with harvest and crush. And more importantly, a near elimination of the power grid as an ignition source for catastrophic wildfire on Howell Mountain. The poles running along Summit Lake Drive and through the middle of the vineyards will also come out, which will not be missed.
Whether the reduction in future maintenance costs and liability exposure translates to rate decreases for customers — we are not holding our breath on that part. But the rest of it is genuinely good news, and it is hard to be pessimistic about it.
Vintage 2026
The 2026 vintage got off to a slow start. A warm winter followed by a cool, wet spring pushed things back. Normal May sunshine has since arrived and growth in the vineyard is catching up. It is impossible to say this early what the vintage will produce. What we can say is that it is beautiful out there right now, and that counts for something.
