Winemaker Notes
The 2016 Provenance Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon reveals its provenance with layers of fresh, delicate, dark berry fruits. Aromas of blackberry, mulberry, boysenberry, and black currant are present on the nose along with seductive savory notes of potpourri and rosemary. On the palate there is a darker brooding brambly berry fruit supported by pleasing sweet baking spice notes of cinnamon, cedar and clove that surround the core of black currant, chocolate covered cherries and cassis. The depth of flavor culminates in a finish with earthier black tea, bittersweet chocolate, graphite and espresso notes. The firm cocoa-powder tannins—a signature of Rutherford dust character—enhance the velvet texture and well-balanced structure, providing a mineral rich finish, as well as giving this Cabernet its cellar worthiness.
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This wine has a tight structure that consolidates all its luscious cherry-plum flavor and holds it in abeyance. It feels sleek and spicy, and yet it also feels like there’s a lot of flavor to develop with bottle age. Trevor Durling makes this wine primarily from two vineyards, Provenance’s Wildwood Estate and Beckstoffer Georges III, both in eastern Rutherford.
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James Suckling
Maybe this isn’t the most concentrated Rutherford cabernet, but it has lovely fragrance with just a hint of leafy character that adds freshness. Plenty of positive tannins that gel nicely with the red berry and blackberry aromas. Spot-on, food-friendly balance at the long, clean finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Blended of 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2.5% Cabernet Franc, 1% Malbec and 0.5% Petit Verdot aged for 22 months in 35% new oak (95% French and 5% Hungarian), the deep garnet-purple colored 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford sings of crushed red and blackcurrants, black berries and menthol with touches of fragrant earth, violets and black tea plus a waft of cigar box. Full, firm and grainy, the palate delivers plenty of harmony and depth with a long earthy finish.
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.