Winery - Rubicon Estate
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Made from 98% Cabernet Sauvignon, with no Merlot or Cabernet Franc for the first time, the ’05 Rubicon tastes bigger and more impenetrable than any previous vintage. It’s thick and heavy at this time, with furry tannins and undeniably ripe flavors of blackberries, black currants, cherries, violets, chocolate and cedar, and a tang of melted minerals. Desperately needs time in the cellar. Nowhere near ready for at least four years, and that may be conservative. Tasted three times, and better each time, a seriously good sign, and potentially a perfect wine.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
A wonderful Zinfandel, made from grapes grown on the estate vineyard. Shows all the briary, brambly, wild berry and spice character you could ask for, in a wine that’s balanced and, in its own way, elegant despite high alcohol. Just floods the mouth with blackberry jam, blueberry tart, anise and freshly crushed black pepper flavors. Best now in its flamboyant youth.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
The ’05, as befits a cool vintage, is lean, with the alcohol showing through bare-bones citrus flavors. Even those who like their whites dry and flinty may find this Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier blend a little thin.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This is not the same wine as Niebaum-Coppola’s Cask Cabernet, although it sells for the same price. It’s made in a different style, more tannic and not as apparently oaky. To judge from the depth of flavor, it’s extremely cellarworthy. Should unfold by 2008 and develop for years beyond.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
This bottling has ripe cherry and toasty oak flavors, wrapped in fine tannins, and is thoroughly dry. It’s a light-bodied, pleasant wine, but is a little one-dimensional, especially at this price.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
Fragrant, showing cascades of violets, caramelized new oak, sweet cherry pie, cocoa and cassis aromas. In the mouth, it’s unctuous, and floods the palate with sweet, savory flavors. Has a youthful jamminess right now, which will melt off and refine as time goes by. Such is the elegance and balance that cellaring it for 20 years will be no problem. This is the best Rubicon ever.
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* Expert NoteJanuary 12, 2012
I always think of Francis Coppola’s Cask Cabernet as his hommage to the old Inglenook. It’s 100% varietal, grown at the Rutherford estate, and a spectacular wine. Enormously oaky now, with an explosion of char and vanilla, it shows an underworld of black currants, and is huge in sweet, youthful tannins. Yet those tannins are so polished, so refined. This is a glamorous wine, tremendous now, and will hold and develop through 2020.
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