Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon Reviews

Jean-Charles Boisset is determined to make Raymond a player in contemporary Napa Valley wine, dedicating his team to biodynamic farming and bringing a Folies-Bergère-meets-Dalí style to the winery’s tasting rooms. Boisset purchased Raymond in 2009 and hired Stephanie Putnam, late of Far Niente, as winemaker the following year. She now produces a range of 100 percent cabernet sauvignon “District” wines like this latest Rutherford release, a blend from the original Raymond estate on Zinfandel Lane and fruit from a vineyard in the western benchlands, allowed a long fermentation without added yeast. This vintage feels cool and elegant, shot through with brightness, as if the wine’s freshness were backlighting its red fruit purity. The wine isn’t heavy or grippy, but it completely fills its structure with luscious fruit, scents of roast mushrooms and dusty tannins that give it stature and staying power.

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. 

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.