Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Benchland Select is all Cabernet that spent 22 months in 61% new French oak. It's similarly inky colored and has terrific, flowery blue and black fruits, loads of incense, spice, and tobacco, full body, building tannins, and a great, great finish. It's another thrilling wine from this team that plays with the best of the best.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Benchland Select is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, with 65% of the fruit coming from Vine Hill Ranch. It was aged 22 months in French oak, 61% new. Very deep garnet-purple colored, the nose features very dark, serious, broody fruit notions of blackcurrant cordial, boysenberries and mulberries with nuances of cigar box, fungi, fertile loam and pencil lead plus a touch of tar. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has a wonderfully plush texture with beautifully integrated freshness and a generous black-fruit core, finishing long with some spicy layers coming through.
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Wine & Spirits
Julianne Laks blends this wine from two western benchland sites, one in Rutherford, the other in Oakville. Its time in French oak barrels, most of them new, shows in the rich notes of espresso-roast coffee that dominate the wine for its first two days open. But the wine’s silken elegance begins to win out with air, its firm structure showing more clearly. The flavors will open with decanting and wood-fired grilled meats.
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James Suckling
There’s plenty of toasty, spicy oak on the nose here with crushed violets and ripe dark fruit. The palate follows suit with roasted coffee threaded through sweetly ripe dark-berry flavors. Good length. Let it settle some more and try from 2020.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a 100% varietal wine given nearly two years in French oak, a large percentage of it new. Built to age, it shows structure and weighty tannin, with smoky oak, toasted black currant and earthy forest floor. Cedar, sage and tobacco round it out nicely to add further complexity. Enjoy best from 2026–2031
One of the most prestigious wines of the world capable of great power and grace, Napa Valley Cabernet is a leading force in the world of fine, famous, collectible red wine. Today the Napa Valley and Cabernet Sauvignon are so intrinsically linked that it is difficult to discuss one without the other. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that this marriage came to light; sudden international recognition rained upon Napa with the victory of the Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
Cabernet Sauvignon undoubtedly dominates Napa Valley today, covering half of the land under vine, commanding the highest prices per ton and earning the most critical acclaim. Cabernet Sauvignon’s structure, acidity, capacity to thrive in multiple environs and ability to express nuances of vintage make it perfect for Napa Valley where incredible soil and geographical diversity are found and the climate is perfect for grape growing. Within the Napa Valley lie many smaller sub-AVAs that express specific characteristics based on situation, slope and soil—as a perfect example, Rutherford’s famous dust or Stags Leap District's tart cherry flavors.