Winemaker Notes
The 2015 Sullivan Rutherford Estate Cabernet Sauvignon reflects the growing season in its intensity and richness. Hints of black cherry and plum lead the way with subtle dark chocolate and sweet vanilla notes. There is a juicy quality to this wine that shows as a plush roundness, ultimately coating the entire palate. True to its Rutherford heritage, the tannins are resolved and give a sense of cocoa powder dancing across the tongue.
Professional Ratings
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2015 Sullivan Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the stars from a beautiful and ripe vintage. TASTING NOTES: This wine is substantive and long. Pair its generous black fruit and oak accents with braised short ribs. (Tasted: March 6, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon is more upfront and flamboyant, with sexy notes of sweet cassis, tobacco and violets. With medium to full body, not a hard edge to be found, and fruit galore, drink this pleasure-bent beauty over the coming decade or more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate (a blend of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot) offers aromas of blackberry tart and blueberry pie with touches of dried herbs, pencil shavings and chargrill. Medium-bodied, finely crafted and approachable in the mouth, it has good pure fruit expression, finishing earthy.
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.