Rutherford Cab: How Good Is 2003?
West side wines dominate blind tasting of 24

By Jim Gordon

Rutherford, Calif. -- The annual Rutherford Dust Society tasting July 12 presented an excellent snapshot of the 2003 vintage in Napa Valley’s oldest Cabernet producing district, and provided a graphic reminder of how classic the Cabernets from this mid-valley location continue to be. Some 2003s have already been released, but many of the more serious and age-worthy Rutherford reds will be coming out in the next few months, so now is the time to prepare to buy.

The take-home points for me were:

- 2003 is a very good year, better than 2000 but not quite as outstanding as 2001, 2002 or (potentially) 2004. Most of the top wines will be released now through the end of 2006.

- 2003 is an inconsistent year, at least in Rutherford, giving some wines great concentration and complexity, while leaving others more lean and tight.

- Small as it is, the Rutherford appellation is not homogeneous, and the vineyards west of Highway 29 tend to produce more classic, deep Cabernets.

The media were invited by the Rutherford Dust Society to taste 24 Rutherford-grown Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines from 2003 in a controlled setting at Rubicon Estate (formerly Niebaum Coppola) on July 12 in a session moderated by the estate’s general manager, Larry Stone. The society is a non-profit trade association composed formed wineries and vineyard companies who took the name from a saying by the late, respected winemaker Andre Tchelistcheff who spent much of his long career at Beaulieu: “It takes Rutherford dust to make great Cabernet.”

Tasting and discussing a great group of  wines in the 19th century winery built by Inglenook founder Gustave Niebaum it was nearly impossible to miss the historical significance of  Rutherford -- a small town in mid-Napa Valley surrounded by famous vineyards -- as the home of Cabernet Sauvignon in North America.

Niebaum imported Cabernet Sauvignon vines from Bordeaux to plant here, and the estate has made Cabernet ever since under him and three successive owners, the current being filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola since 1976. Across Highway 29 lies Beaulieu Vineyard, founded in 1900, and known since the 1930s for its outstanding flagship Cabernet, BV Georges de Latour Private Reserve.

“The historic attributes that were prized here,” said Stone, “are still here.” Those include a high radiant value of sunshine compared to other parts of the valley, coupled with summer evenings that cool off quickly, and seemingly flat terrain that nevertheless slopes from 500 feet above sea level down to 172 feet at the Napa River which runs down the middle of the valley-straddling district.

I took the opportunity to taste the Rutherford wines blind, turning over my answer sheet to challenge my assumptions and see what I could learn, while most of the group of media people, growers and winemakers knew what the wines were. Overall, the Rutherford performance was less impressive than last year’s when the 2002 vintage was presented, but still quite good, yielding 13 wines out of 24 that deserve scores of 90 or better out of 100, in my opinion.

(read our Napa Valley Cabernet Vintage Chart)

The top wine on my scorecard was the Staglin Family Estate Cabernet, filled with pure fruit flavors and polished to a T. No surprise, really, because it has a great reputation and carries the highest price tag of this group at $150 per bottle. Last year Staglin was my top pick, also. The Staglin is scheduled for release in September.

Close behind were two relative surprises. Frank Family Vineyards bottled a gorgeous, vibrant 2003 Rutherford Reserve Cab that scored 93 and won’t be released until next year. At the same level in my scores was Rubicon’s 2003 Cask bottling. It is the regular bottling from the Rutherford estate that precedes the release of the more limited Rubicon Cabernet.

(Top Rutherford 2003 Cabernets -- Scroll to the bottom of the page, please.)

Of my eight top wines, six were grown on the west side of Highway 29, supporting my view that the most serious, complex and age-worthy Rutherford wines grow in the western third of this 6-square-mile American Viticultural Area where they benefit apparently from the cooling sun shadow of Mount St. John in the late afternoon, and from slightly higher elevations and slopes that provide good drainage. Many Rutherford vineyards east of the highway are in bottom land near the Napa River or on dry, southwestern-facing sun-baked hills on the far east side of Napa Valley.

The wines tended to fit into two groups: those that were ripe, rich and full-bodied with round textures (sometimes too soft) and those that tasted more herbal, lean and obviously tannic. Larry Stone observed that the growing season had a wild, hot September with varying temperatures and some vivid heat “spikes” that made the grapes ripen irregularly. But in October the weather moderated and a good number of consistently warm but not hot days finished the ripening cycle more slowly and easily. Stone and other winemakers said that the grapes harvested in September may have had high enough sugar content to be considered ripe, but they didn't have the same flavor concentration as the grapes harvested in October after the vines had time to rehydrate and come to overall ripeness. This may explain why some wines tasted more lean and herbal, while others were more rich and ripe.

In April of 2003 more than 7 inches of rain fell in Napa Valley when the Cabernet vines were blooming. This unusual amount of late-season rain diminished the “set” of the crop and reduced the overall yield of the vines in Rutherford, said Davie Pina, whose company manages about 1,000 acres in the appellation.

Joel Aiken, long-time head winemaker at Beaulieu, said that with a smallish 2003 crop compared to 2002 and with plenty of time in October to finish ripening, “2003 shows more of the philosophy of the winemaker than 2002.” That also helps explain a diversity of wine styles in the vintage.

Wineries new on the scene made some excellent 2003s in Rutherford. Cabernets you may not have heard of yet, like Round Pond, Tres Sabores, Monticello Tietjen Vineyard and Fountainhead are worth searching for.

The two best values in the group were Trinchero Chicken Ranch, a lighter but very tasty Cabernet (89 points at $25), and Provenance (90 points at $40).

Figures from 2004 sum up Rutherford like this:

Total acres planted in the Rutherford American Viticultural Area: 6,840 acres.

Total Rutherford acreage planted to red Bordeaux varieties: 87%

Total Rutherford acreage planted to Cabernet Sauvignon: 57% or 2,253 acres.

Percent of Napa Valley Cabernet acreage that is in Rutherford: 17%.

(To view all reviews from the tasting plus more, go to our Reviews page and do a search. Under Wine type/Varietal select Cabernet Sauvignon; under Region, select Napa Valley; under Vintage, select 2003.)

July 25, 2006