2016 Inglenook Rubicon 2016 1500ml

97 POINTS

James Suckling

This is a powerful and structured red with full body, focused and polished tannins and a long and flavorful finish. It’s very close to the great 2013. A blend of 93 per cent cabernet sauvignon and seven per cent cabernet franc. Needs three or four years to come around.

97 POINTS

Antonio Galloni MW - Vinous

The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rubicon is a wine of total precision and class. Translucent and energetic, with distinctly mid-weight structure, the 2016 is a wine of reserve, tension and breeding. Shy at first, the 2016 has a lot to offer, but it needs a number of years in bottle to be at its most expressive. Cedar, tobacco, licorice and wild cherry add the closing nuances.

96 POINTS

Jeb Dunnuck

The flagship 2016 Rubicon checks in as 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Cabernet Franc, and there are close to 4,000 cases produced. This deep purple-hued beauty boasts a stunning nose of blackcurrants, tobacco leaf, cedarwood, and lead pencil shavings as well as even a hint of iron. These carry to a full-bodied 2016 that has terrific dept of fruit, solid mid-palate concentration, building tannins, and a great finish. This is a classic, age-worthy Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that will benefit from 7-8 years of bottle age and keep for 3 decades.

96 POINTS

Antonio Galloni MW - Vinous

The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rubicon is powerful, dark and unctuous, while retaining a super-classic sense of structure. Black cherry, plum, chocolate, leather, spice and menthol infuse the 2016 with striking textural depth and sweetness.

95 POINTS

Virginie Boone - Wine Enthusiast

From the esteemed producer's gorgeous estate, including 3% Merlot, this is impressive and structured - a leathery, viscous and concentrated expression of a great site in an intense vintage, Gunpowder, oak and black-cherry compote form around brightly captured acidity and a lasting fistful of baking spice that lingers and softens the finish.  Editors' choice

95 POINTS

Peter Moser - Falstaff

A notion of tar, of petrichor, appears before subtle black fruit. That sense of dark, brooding fruit intensifies on the palate where dense but elegant tannins subside to slowly reveal layer upon layer of elegant fruit, of cherry-skin savouriness, of graphite. The majesty of Cabernet is right here in this glass. This needs time. Give it a decade and you will have an emblematic wine of place and grape. Drink 2025-2050. A.K.

95 POINTS

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

Blended of 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Cabernet Franc, the deep garnet-purple colored 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rubicon gives up bold notions of crushed red and black currants, wild blueberries and blackberry preserves with touches of violets, dark chocolate, cardamom and bay leaves plus a hint of unsmoked cigars. Medium to full-bodied, the palate reveals great elegance and depth, with a beautiful line of finely grained tannins and amazing freshness, finishing long and layered. 3,847 cases produced.

95 POINTS

Antonio Galloni MW - Vinous

The highlight in this tasting of 2016s, the Cabernet Sauvignon Rubicon is also the most harmonious and complete of the three 2016s I tasted at Inglenook. Silky, seamless and super-polished, the 2016 is impeccable from start to finish. Naturally, the 2016 is still very, very young, but it starts its life from a very privileged position. All the elements are in the right place. Points: 94-97