2016 Rarity Rutherford Napa Valley Magnum

The powerful, complex character of 2016 Rarity comes from our finest barrel-lots of Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot, selected from our oldest vines predominantly from two iconic vineyard locations: BV Ranches No. 1 and 2. A small amount of the blend also comes from our Hewitt Estate Vineyard, a component to our finest Cabernet Sauvignons for more than 50 years. All the vineyards are deeply rooted in well-draining, alluvial fan soils on the western bench-lands of Napa Valley’s Rutherford AVA, which provides excellent drainage, while long daily sun exposure, tempered by cool nights, fosters perfect grape maturity

At our state-of-the-art winery, dedicated exclusively to crafting of our reserve wines, we optically sorted the gently destemmed grape berries to retain only the highest quality fruit. For early integration of oak character and to enhance the supple mouthfeel, over half of the Rarity components were barrel-fermented, with the balance in stainless steel and concrete tanks. During fermentation, our winemaking team rotated the barrels four times per day to build complexity. After maceration followed by gentle pressing, we returned the wine to barrels for malolactic fermentation and aging. To balance the tremendous intensity of dark fruit character, we chose to age this wine in 100 percent new French oak barrels. We complemented the blend with five percent Petit Verdot from BV Ranch No.1 to add more structure and layers of flavor. Winemakers blended the wine components in January 2018, giving the wine plenty of time to marry before bottling in late summer of that year.