Rob's "Wine of the Week" Archives
So here is my wine review for the week of October 6th...
RUBICON ESTATE RUTHERFORD 2004 & 2005
Description: Rubicon estate used to be Niebaum Coppola. Francis Ford Coppola made the largest wine property purchase in California history a few years ago and essentially split his winery into two parts, moving the high end productions to the newly purchased Rubicon estates. Formerly, Coppola made a high end merlot labeled as “Rubicon,” which was excellent.
After a few years of mediocre production, the Rubicon blend has returned with a vengeance. The 2004 was recently released and I was lucky enough to also get a preview taste of the soon to be available 2005. Both are blends of Cabernet sauvignon and a little petit verdot.
How and when I drank it: Saturday, October 4, 2008 at an undisclosed location for security purposes. Shove it.
How to get it: Thanks to Coppola’s name and popularity, Rubicon is much more readily available than most high end Napa reds. Bevmo, Total wine and most wine merchants carry the label and occasionally I have seen it at some grocery stores and even Costco. The winery also sells their wine online.
How Much: The bottle is $125 from the winery
My Thoughts: The two vintages have slight, specific individual characteristics but for the most part are very similar outstanding red wines, reminiscent of the Rubicon’s of the 1990s. The wine starts with the now long expected Rubicon dark fruit flavor of cherry and wild berry, then shifts into a rich spice before finishing with the thing I love most about Rubicon; a glorious vanilla end and perfectly balanced tannins.
Overall Score: This is a very big red wine that should be savored by red wine lovers on special occasions. While not overly tannic, only true red wine lovers can appreciate just how perfectly blended this wine is with its’ fantastic vanilla finish, a hallmark of this wine. Both bottles will age beautifully or can be drunk now. It’s hard to award perfect scores to wines that cost over $100, but this label deserves it.
RUBICON ESTATE RUTHERFORD 2004 & 2005 = 
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