Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The luxury cuvee released in a heavy bottle, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer comes from another site farmed by the Beckstoffer team. It offers outstanding notes of blueberries, toasted spice, hints of vanilla oak, and white flowers, and is medium to full-bodied, fresh and focused on the palate. with beautiful purity of fruit. Aged 24 months in new French oak, it shows the 2014 vintage nicely and can be drunk anytime over the coming 15+ years.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a densely packed, powerful and ripe wine from a tremendous site in the heart of the appellation. Black cherry, dark chocolate and coconut shavings make for a rich impression on the velvety palate, with plenty of toasted oak for support. This wine will do well in the cellar. Enjoy from 2024–2034.
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Wine Spectator
Well-centered on rich, juicy currant, blackberry, wild berry, anise and loamy earth flavors. Very complete, complex and persistent on the finish. Drink now through 2030. 250 cases made.
A commitment to classic Napa Valley style sets Heritance wines apart and deeply roots them in America’s most celebrated wine region. As the cornerstone Napa brand of the Taub Family Vineyards, Heritance produces wines from the best mid-valley sites in St. Helena, Yountville, Oakville and Rutherford – including the renowned Beckstoffer Vineyard Georges III.
The family’s roots in the California wine business date back to the days just following the end of Prohibition. Three generations of Taubs, starting with Martin Taub (left) and David S. Taub (center), have contributed to an illustrious and enterprising legacy in the wine and spirits trade. Inspired by his family’s legacy, Taub Family Vineyards was launched in 2013 by Marc D. Taub (right), President & CEO of Taub Family Companies which includes Palm Bay International and Taub Family Selections.
The Beauty of Napa is the diversity of its soils: older and mineral driven on the slopes of the Mayacamus and Vaca Mountain ranges, with alluvial fans of primarily gravelly, sandy and loamy clay on the valley floor. Rutherford soils are dominated by the Franciscan marine sedimentary materials with some volcanic deposits. The Mediterranean climate allows for a long, dry summer with warm days and cool nights, and light summer rainfall, with a low risk for vineyard disease.
Under the experienced eye of chief winemaker Tom Hinde, Heritance wines uphold a tradition of elegance. Former President and CEO of Flowers Winery, Tom’s experience in California winemaking is considerable. While he is involved in every aspect of the growing and winemaking process, he also finds time to promote the wines across the country, working with Marc Taub to showcase the beauty of Napa Valley in every bottle of Heritance.
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.