Generous and elegant, showing little of expected, extreme tertiary, a nose borne on lusty leather and slowly-distilling berry, interlaced with slight mint and dusty fragrance. I just noticed I have a TON of these, so I guess I followed my own advice a bit too much, as I told everyone starting a decade ago to buy as many 2011’s as you could find, and ramped up that advice and they lingered unsold on shelves and went to clearance-racks under #winebro’s constant defamation of the vintage. With that said, I think our days of drinking 70’s and 80’s Rutherfords beautifully 30, 40 and 50 years on is a bit optimistic with something produced in the marketing mentality of the oughts and teens, and I don’t know how far to push these. So… I’ll drink one every couple years and see how it goes. So far–so good.
This is not the most beautiful wine you’ve ever had. It is not toe-curling in its extravagant display of complexity and iconic terrior. It’s actually rather simple, though finding flaws is a challenge. It thins out a bit on the palate, fruit fading down into slightly-toasted arenas of error-free balance with the tingly acid, heady spice and still-vibrant tannin. The finish is summarily bitter, as the never-slutty fruit Rutherford classically shows, but the thin-ness of that fruit in the finish is likewise trademark to the brand. I hope you have some of these.
2011 BEAULIEU VINEYARD ‘Rutherford’ Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 13.8
Stephen McConnell 