2016 Rutherford Hill Cabernet Sauvignon

Community Tasting Notes (10) Avg Score: 89 points

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  3/30/2024 - al80813@gmail.com Likes this wine: 87 Points

  Double decanted and let breathe for 30m in bottle before trying. Drank over two days, allowing to bottle breathe for ~4hrs while drinking on both days. 76% Cabernet Sauvignon and 24% Merlot from Napa Valley. 18 months in French oak.
  
  Pours a deep, dark red in the glass with a bit of garnet at the rim. Expressive nose of chocolate, dark fruit, and dark flowers. Fruits are more towards blackberry and plum. A little baking spice too after agitation in glass. A bit hot on the nose. Picking up a lot more chocolate on the nose as it gets air. On the palate it’s a medium-bodied wine that delivers on the plum, cassis flavors of the nose. Also get a good amount of leather/earthiness and rosemary towards the finish, which is very long. After 1hr it’s getting quite more vivid fruit on the palate and chocolatey on the finish. Good acidity keeps it in balance. Tannins are very fine grained at this point.
  
  On day 2 it’s changed very little. Lots of red and dark fruits (getting more tart cherry today), and a bit of sweet tobacco earthiness. Very soft tannins, medium acidity and a loooong subtle chocolate finish.
  
  A good California Cabernet that can be found at reasonable prices. This isn’t my favorite style but it benefits from giving it plenty of air, I like where it started and where it ended up, in the middle it became a weird chocolate bomb that integrated more soundly with air.

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  1/19/2024 - YackAttack213 Does not like this wine: 75 Points

  👃 very fresh ripe red berries
  👅 At PnP, light, fresh, blackberry though not really much fruit, chocolate and wood notes quickly take over, ending with a medium-short finish of oak and just a little menthol note.
  
  After a 2h decant:
  Oak! Oak! Oak! Tooooo much! STOP IT!
  
  I think the lesson here is don't buy "value" napa cab. Gross!!!!

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  9/9/2023 - DizzyOneCheck Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Paired with grilled ribeye. Consistent with prior note - very one note cherry/black cherry nose and palate upon opening. Decanted for one hour, flavors of cherry, cinnamon, baking spice, raspberry and cedar. Really opens up with the air time. Delivers for mid-$30s Costco price point.

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  9/8/2023 - Kcid Likes this wine: 91 Points

  This really grew on me after being in the decanter for 2+ hours.
  
  Palate has lots of dark fruit, and some red fruit. Almost a chocolate finish.
  
  Nose is a lot of leather and oak, with some dried fruit.
  
  Tannins are nice, especially after getting some air.
  
  Great QPR as a $36 Costco find.

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  9/1/2023 - Sbuchholz Likes this wine: 85 Points

  Gorgeous deep dark burgandy in color. To the nose are aromas of leather, dark berries, earth, Forst floor, & oak. First impressions were of soft velvety texture of black berries & cherries with a hint of oak. That quickly dissipates to an earthy flavor that ended in a metallic aftertaste. The fruit flavors would be short finish in duration but the metallic is very long. A bit disappointing as I was hoping for the initial velvety fruit to carry a bit longer.
  Overall, a decent Cabernet for the money but not sure I would buy it again.

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