Ten years from vintage is when Howell Mountain Cabernet can become something else, when force begins to give way to nuance. The mountain’s intensity remains, but time uncovers more beneath it: detail, lift, and complexity that young Cabernet rarely shows. Treebottom’s 2016 has reached that stage, carrying a decade of evolution alongside the high-elevation, volcanic character of its origin. Treebottom is a personal project. Winemaker Michael Henry grew up near Henry Brothers Ranch, and his connection to the mountain is generational, not borrowed. He and his brothers, Ben and Matthew, handpick the fruit, and production has remained small. Family, vineyard, and scale stay closely connected. Henry brings the same measured hand to the cellar. His early work at Sequoia Grove placed him alongside longtime mentor Michael Trujillo, but Treebottom was built around a simpler idea: let the mountain remain recognizable in the glass. In the 2016 vintage, structure, site, and time have now had a decade to come together. That maturity is what makes this bottle so compelling today.