2019 Taub Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford 750 ml

Taub Family’s Rutherford vineyard sources are as good as they get in Napa—and usually carry prices to match.

Under the direction of Maayan Koschitzky, they make wine from Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper Block B, Beckstoffer Georges III, and Morisoli-Borges Vineyard—each a gem of the Rutherford Bench, more than worthy of the $200 price tags they command. But there has always been a backdoor into the Taub lineup: their Rutherford Cabernet, made from vineyards the winery can’t publicly acknowledge, but which are all prime benchland sites in the same neighborhood as those flagships.

Koschitzky is not a name that shows up on just any bottle. As Director of Winemaking at Atelier Melka—the consulting house behind some of Napa Valley’s most decorated wines—he has worked the cellars of Screaming Eagle and Dalla Valle, and accumulated more 100-point scores than most winemakers see in a lifetime. Wine Enthusiast named him one of their 40 Under 40 Tastemakers. He is particular about the projects he takes on.

Taub Family Vineyards is one of them. Founded in 2013 by Marc Taub, whose family has been in the California wine trade since just after Prohibition—his grandfather Marty among the first to help rebuild the industry after repeal—the winery was built with a clear ambition: to make serious Cabernet from the Valley’s most significant benchland addresses.

The Rutherford Bench earns its reputation. Stretching along the western edge of the appellation, sheltered by the Mayacamas, it sits on deep gravelly alluvial soils that push vine roots deep. The result is dense, concentrated fruit with that singular texture—the cocoa-powdery, faintly earthy finish Tchelistcheff famously called “Rutherford dust.” It’s a fingerprint, and it’s all over this bottle.

The 2019 vintage gave those soils and that winemaker everything they needed. An unusually wet winter recharged the valley, then a long warm summer with almost no extreme heat let the fruit hang and ripen slowly and evenly. Winemakers called it a “Goldilocks” vintage—not too hot, not too cold, picked at leisure. The Cabernets are ripe and full, but fresher and more structured than you’d expect from such a warm-climate appellation.