Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford District Collection is medium to deep garnet-purple in color with an open-knit nose of baked plums and earth notions plus incense and dusty earth hints. Full-bodied with soft acid and plush tannins, it shows warm fruit and good length.

Boldly rich, with a hint of heat, this wine is ripe and dusty—two of the appellation’s most famous aspects. Blackberry, pepper jelly and tobacco flavors commingle, with sturdy grip of tannin and oak. 

Powerfully extracted, this needs long exposure to air before the hard edges relent, moving from mineral oil, heat and black tannins to a smoother, softer feel. The texture becomes round and lush, while the mineral notes in the tannins keep it to an elegant line.

The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon District Collection Rutherford represents 738 cases, and this is truly a remarkable wine and probably the best Raymond wine in many a year. Aged 19 months in 55% new French oak and bottled unfined and unfiltered, this seamless classic has a fragrant blackberry and cassis-scented nose, a touch of licorice, creosote and incense, Asian spice, and subtle background oak that make this a juicy, dense wine with moderate tannin, but with fabulous mouthfeel and intensity. This should drink well for 20-25 or more years.

Cherry-berry crumble topped with vanilla cream gives this wine a brambly, succulent quality, dusted in light cinnamon spice, cedar and well-integrated tannin and oak. Powerful and full-bodied, it’s fruity, balanced and enjoyable now. —V.B.

The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford is a powerful, intense wine. Bittersweet chocolate, iron, black cherry and plum flow through to the finish, where a kick of classic Rutherford dust puts an exclamation point on a gorgeous, expressive 2013 to drink over the next 10-15 years. - Antonio Galloni
 

This wine is a blend of fruit from two sites on the valley floor in Rutherford-- blocks 1 and 2 at the Raymond estate as well as the Heitz Trailside Vineyards between the Silverado Trail and Conn Creek. The interaction of the fruit and the French oak is impressive, to the fact that more than 90 percent of the barrels are second use-- allowing the dynamic Rutherford tannins to stand firm. The fruit is refined, in a strawberry, raspberry, cranberry mode that freshens the finish. Delicious now with roasted hen-of-the-woods mushrooms next to a steak. (500 cases)

Leaning toward the herb and dill side of Cabernet, this is lean and rim, with crushed rock, currant, cedar and tobacco leaf elements. The leanest of the new Raymond District Cabernets.

Cellar Selection. Edgy tannins are the star in this young Cabernet. They give the wine a gritty feeling, making it hard to embrace the ripe blackberry, black cherry and currant flavors. The dryness, fine acidity and overall balance suggest this will have no trouble negotiating the next 10 years in the cellar.