2012 Rudius Cabernet Sauvignon Kaley Elizabeth

The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Kaley Elizabeth is sourced exclusively from the Tierra Roja Vineyard in eastern Oakville. It sits below and adjacent to Dalla Valle and is in the same neighborhood as the Backus Vineyard of Joseph Phelps and the Rudd estate. This is a high-priced zip code for sure. Jeff Ames produced this wine and named it after his daughter. And it's a tiny cuvee, of only about four barrels, or 100 or so cases. Bottled unfined and unfiltered after 18 months in oak, the wine has beautiful, earthy/loamy soil and forest floor notes intermixed with blueberry and blackberry fruit, true terroir character, a full-bodied mouthfeel and beautiful purity of fruit and depth. The wine is rich, full and capable of evolving for 20 to 25+ years. This wine builds incrementally, and while at first there seems to be incredibly delicate and well-integrated sweet tannin, as the wine sits in the glass the big structure of this wine comes forth. This is a beauty and should age magnificently.

Author: Robert Parker