Winemaker Notes
This flagship Estate Cabernet Sauvignon evolves in the glass with alluring aromas of ripe blueberries, black cherry, star anise, baking spices, and minerality reflective of our infamous “Rutherford Dust.” Elegant and dark, this wine gracefully dances across the palate with flavors ranging from lush blackberry preserve, rhubarb pie, and sage. Supple and layered with refined tannins, the mid-palate is enhanced with notes of mocha leading to chocolate-covered cherries on the finish.
Blend: 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot, 7% Malbec, 1% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
With small percentages of Petit Verdot, Malbec and Merlot, this is a lush, layered wine that’s bursting in juicy red fruit and dried herb. Firm tannins and supportive oak give it structure and balanced weight.
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James Suckling
This blend of 83 per cent cabernet sauvignon with petit verdot, malbec and merlot, has a central offering of ripe blackberries and plums with hints of black truffle and chocolate. It delivers in approachable, fleshy and concentrated style. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford is a blend of 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot, 7% Malbec and 1% Merlot. Deep purple-black in color, it has a nose of tar, earth and smoked meats over cassis and plums plus a hint of fried herbs. The palate is full-bodied and very savory with good concentration.
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.