Winemaker Notes
This wine is opaque with dark ruby color. The aroma is very rich with blackberry and dark currant fruit. With great depth of fruit, the oak adds a spicy edge, yielding nuances of aromatic cedar, cinnamon, clove, cigar box, black pepper and dark chocolate coco powder. This is a very big wine, the body is very full, balanced with black fruit flavors, coupled with a good acidity and resolved tannins. This will give a Cabernet lover goose bumps.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford rolls from the glass with warm blackberries, black cherry compote and red and black currants at the core with touches of cardamom, lavender, dusty earth and wild thyme. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has plenty of bright, lively fruit and ripe, finely grained tannins, delivering a well-poised, delicately earthy finish.
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Wine & Spirits
This tight, cassis-driven cabernet is fresh and inviting. The fruit is aromatic and clean, with highlights of cranberries, roots and green herbs. The tannins are integrated and gentle, ready to take on an herb-braised lamb shank.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2016 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Sauvignon is riper and fuller than I remember the wines in previous vintages. TASTING NOTES: This is a beautiful wine. Its aromas and flavors of combined red and black fruits, with a hint of savory spices, should pair it well with roast chicken. (Tasted: July 18, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
There are around 2,000 cases of the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford, which is 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, with the balance Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. Aged 27 months in 58% new French oak, it has a terrific sense of elegance and purity as well medium-bodied richness, light tannins, and classic Rutherford notes of mulled red and black fruits, dried earth, and chocolate.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
The Rutherford sub-region of Napa Valley centers on the town of Rutherford and covers some of Napa Valley’s finest vineyard real estate, spanning from the Mayacamas in the west, to the Vaca Mountains on the other side of the valley.
Inside of the Rutherford AVA, bordering the Mayacamas, is a stretch of uplands called the Rutherford Bench. (These bench lands technically run the length of Oakville as well). Mountain runoff creates deep, well-drained, alluvial soils on the bench, giving vine roots plenty of reason to permeate deep into the ground. The result is wine with great structure and complexity.
Rutherford Cabernet Sauvingons and Bordeaux Blends garner substantial attention for their enticing fragrances of dusty earth and dried herbs, broad and juicy mid-palates and lush and fine-grained tannins. The sub-appellation claims some of the valley’s most prized vineyards today, namely Caymus, Rubicon and Beckstoffer Georges III.
It is also home to Napa’s most influential and historic personalities. Thomas Rutherford, responsible for the appellation's name, made serious investments here in grape growing and wine production between the years of 1850 to 1880. Gustave Niebaum purchased a large swath of land and completed his winery in 1887, calling it “Inglenook.” Today this remains the oldest bonded winery in California. Georges Latour founded Beaulieu Vineyard in 1900, making it the oldest continuous winery in the state. Latour also hired the famous enologist, André Tchelistcheff, a man credited for single-handedly defining the modern Napa winemaking style.