2013 Round Pond Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Kith and Kin Napa Valley 750 ml

2013 Round Pond Cabernet Sauvignon Kith and Kin … Robert Parker’s 100pt Barrage

In the heart of Rutherford at Round Pond, the size and quality of the 2013 harvest convinced the MacDonnell family to hold on to most of that year’s Cabernet Sauvignon production. If Round Pond Estate, along with neighboring Caymus and Staglin, is among Rutherford’s top performers, Rivers Brown’s Cabernet Sauvignon “Kith and Kin” is the valley’s most extraordinary bargain.

Don't be fooled by today's price tag. This is a SERIOUS 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon from Rutherford’s superstar— crafted by Napa Valley’s most decorated 100-point winemaker.

When Miles MacDonnell was a kid, his dad would pile his kids in the car and head up to Napa Valley for the weekend, purportedly to buy fresh-pressed olive oil. But eventually, Bob MacDonnell caught the same bug that’s afflicted so many Bay Area entrepreneurs. In the late ‘70s, he purchased 20 acres at the top of what is now Pritchard Hill. “The property was planted with Chardonnay, even if Pritchard Hill is no place for Chardonnay. My Dad didn’t care. To him, this was a hobby, not a business venture,” Miles told us.

“The biggest problem up there was water, as everyone would learn when the fire spread over the mountain in 1982. But every time a landowner dug a well, they hit rock and came up empty. That didn’t deter Dad. He picked a spot next to a big rock, and brought in a crew. In a couple of days, the water was gushing. That’s why people started calling him ‘Lucky Bob’ in Napa Valley.”

In 1986, Lucky Bob got even luckier. With phylloxera slowly ravaging the valley’s vines, some large landowners decided to sell in lieu of replanting. A large, rock-strewn property with fairly deep clay-filled soils came up for sale in Rutherford. On one side was Andy Beckstoffer’s prized Georges III Vineyard (the core of BV’s famous Georges de Latour Reserve). On the other was Caymus. The price seemed right. Bob MacDonnell decided it was time to make his hobby into a real business, and pulled the trigger on 250 acres.

Within a few years after the replanting, every big name in the valley — from Grgich Hills to Duckhorn — was knocking down the MacDonnells’ door. More than two decades later, Bob’s son and daughter decided it was time to not only grow world-class Cabernet Sauvignon, but also to make it. As every Round Pond visitor (by appointment only) now knows, Bob MacDonnell’s children then took a daring page out of their Dad’s playbook. No expense would be spared on the Round Pond Cabernet Sauvignon, from the rigor in the vines to the cellar protocol of the brilliant Thomas Rivers Brown.

Due to the size and quality of the harvest, the MacDonnells opted to hold on to most of their 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon for themselves. While the 2013 Round Pond Reserve stands side by side with Caymus and Staglin as Rutherford’s finest of 2013, it will be winemakers Thomas Rivers Brown and Muiris Griffin’s Round Pond “Kith and Kin” that ranks among the two or three most compelling BARGAINS of the YEAR!

83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Petit Verdot, and 5% Petit Sirah, the 2013 “Kith and Kin” is saturated purple in hue. Luscious, suave aromas of crushed black fruits, tobacco, and red currant, bracketed by new-cooperage cedar. Big, broad, and BOLD on the attack, chewy and almost briery in texture, packed with crushed black fruit and black cherry preserves, finishing — like all the top 2013s — with superb backbone and vibrancy.

Six hundred bottles remain of our allocation. Still $27/bottle — for the next couple hours or so.