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Rubicon Estate, Rutherford (Napa Valley, California)
By Mary Ewing-Mulligan
Mar 14, 2006
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Winemakers love to talk about their new wineries, usually because of the great things they hope to achieve there in the future.  When I visited what was then called the Niebaum-Coppola Estate winery in Napa Valley in 2004, winemaker Scott McLeod likewise couldn't stop talking about his new winery building--but his eyes were looking into the past as much as the future.  The new winery is the old Inglenook Chateau, and in 2002, for the first time in 36 years, Cabernet fermented there.

The 2002 Rubicon--the namesake of the now re-named Rubicon Estate winery--is a worthy representative of the historic re-uniting of the former Inglenook vineyards and winery.  It is a smashing wine, rich and soft and seductive yet very powerful. McLeod says it is the most tannic Rubicon he has ever made, and yet it is possibly the softest great California Cabernet I have ever tasted.

Rubicon is not labeled as Cabernet Sauvignon, although that grape is the foundation of the wine.  (The 2002 is 90 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 5 percent Cabernet Franc, 3 percent Petit Verdot and 2 percent Merlot.)  Rubicon is intended to represent the estate, and its grapes are culled from various vineyards on the contiguous 220-acre, organically-farmed property.  The key vineyard, called Garden, has 40 year-old vines of the original clone that Inglenook founder Gustave Niebaum imported from France in 1882.  This is the vineyard that gives the wine its power, McLeod says; six other sites and the three other grape varieties give the wine its charm, perfume, and nuances of flavor.

At the new winery, the grapes ferment at a fairly warm temperature in small, five- to seven-ton open-top wood fermenting vats, where the solids are punched down into the liquid (the traditional manner of mingling the skins with the fermenting wine).  McLeod describes this as "Pinot Noir winemaking with Cabernet Sauvignon."  Despite the wine's significant amount of ripe grape tannin and firm oak tannin--from two years of aging in new French oak barrels--the texture of the wine is supremely velvety, almost like a dense Pinot Noir.  Aromas and flavors of black cherry, tart cherry, blackberry, spice and slight lead-pencil minerality are not extremely pronounced but very concentrated and have enough presence to balance the wine's huge structure.  The rich but sedate flavors, the supple texture, and the full weight of the wine create a harmonious whole from start to finish.  A tannic monster this is not.

The 2002 Rubicon will surely age well for 15 years, in my opinion, but it is lovely now.  On the table, I would keep the foods simple, just to show off the wine all the more--for example, roast lamb or beef, duck breast, or classic hard cheeses. The official release date of 2002 Rubicon is March 15.

94 Points