WINMAKER NOTES:
The 2018 Rudd Oakville Estate Red has a stunning magenta and youthful purple hue. The wine’s fragrance is perfumed, poised and elegant. The more traditional black cherry and cassis fruit that one find in this wine are complemented by intriguing green olive, cigar leaf, and violet floral components that they find throughout their 2018 vintage wines.
TASTING NOTES:
A blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon and 6% Cabernet Franc, the 2018 Oakville Estate Proprietary Red Wine was aged for 22 months in French oak barrels, 55% new. Deep garnet-purple colored, it sashays out of the glass with flamboyant scents of candied violets, red roses, black raspberries and fragrant earth over a core of cassis, wild blueberries and Morello cherries with a waft of pencil lead. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is an exercise in poise, featuring beautifully balanced velvety tannins and seamless freshness framing the opulent black and red berry layers, finishing very long and perfumed.
– Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, 98 pts
This sports some richness, with warmed plum sauce and cassis mixed with a melted red licorice note, all while apple wood and sweet tobacco fill in from behind. Rich but focused, with nice grain and detail through the finish. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2023 through 2038.
– Wine Spectator, 94 pts