Winemaker Notes
You’ll find this wine’s crisp layers of pineapple, grapefruit, tangerine, honeydew melon and orange blossom to be a refreshing with fresh cracked crab, sautéed scallops or chicken breasts, and mixed salad greens with warmed goat cheese.
Blend: 97% Sauvignon Blanc, 3% Semillon
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Simply a marvelous white wine. The riveting 2014 Provenance Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc makes me think of the grandest expressions of this grape anywhere in the world. The wine is loaded with bright tropical fruits in the aroma, with a note of ripe melon. On the palate, it simply satisfies—fully layered, yet bright with superior vitality. Drinks well now. (Tasted: July 13, 2016, Rutherford, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The delicious 2014 Sauvignon Blanc Rutherford from Provenance has surprising power and richness (14.8%), but loads of honeysuckle and tropical fruit, some melons, spice and great acid. It is medium-bodied.
Capable of a vast array of styles, Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp, refreshing variety that equally reflects both terroir and varietal character. Though it can vary depending on where it is grown, a couple of commonalities always exist—namely, zesty acidity and intense aromatics. This variety is of French provenance. Somm Secret—Along with Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc is a proud parent of Cabernet Sauvignon. That green bell pepper aroma that all three varieties share is no coincidence—it comes from a high concentration of pyrazines (herbaceous aromatic compounds) inherent to each member of the family.
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.