2013 Rockledge Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

2013 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: Outpointing AND Outliving 2007?

We were first introduced to Peter Snowden’s Rockledge Cabernet Sauvignons on the eve of the release of the 2005 vintage. Drawn off an impossibly rocky vineyard in the high ground of St. Helena, Robert Parker raved about that stunning 2005, calling it “ink-colored … dense, rich, yet beautifully balanced with ripe tannin.”

But it would be Snowden’s far more voluptuous 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon that really sent Parker reeling. The Wine Advocate described the 2007 as having “a terrific fragrance of beautifully sweet blue and black fruits intermixed with floral nuances (that) is followed by a full-bodied wine with exquisite concentration and purity, and no hard edges,” before lobbing on a 91-93 point addendum.

If you purchased the 2007 Rockledge on WineAccess, hopefully there are still a few bottles resting in your cellar. That wine has yet to shed its baby fat, and seems locked in suspended animation, filled with the same luscious primary-fruit intensity that Parker described on release.

For those of you who were less fortunate, today you get a reprieve. As is the case up and down the Silverado Trail, the 2013 Rockledge Cabernet Sauvignon is poised to outpoint — and even OUTLIVE — the stupendous 2007. Here’s why.

While barely a drop of rain fell from winter to late September, the 2013 growing season featured just one month where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees (the end of June). Other than that, 2013 was still cooler than 2012, filled with blue-sky days where daytime highs stayed between the mid-80s and mid-90s. On the high ground of St. Helena, the temperature remained in the low 80s. Harvest took place under near-perfect conditions, making for a copious crop of ultra-ripe Cabernet Sauvignon, infused with firmer acids and riper tannins than even 2007.

Robert Parker called 2013 “one of the most epic and awesome vintages” in the history of Napa Valley, making for Cabernet Sauvignons that “are powerful, rich and concentrated, extremely well-delineated, and will be extremely long-lived, eclipsing even the aging potential of the 2012s.” Nowhere more so than at Rockledge.

The 2013 Rockledge Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is opaque purple in color. Finely wound, sappy aromas of blackcurrant, blackberry, licorice, and graphite, tinged with new-wood cedar. Voluptuous on the attack, tightly wound at first, slowly peeling off silken layers of crushed black fruits and mountain blueberries. After 45 minutes in oversized Riedel, the greatest Rockledge Cabernet Sauvignon since 2007 finally “let go,” revealing a sweet compact core of blackberry jam splashed with crème de cassis. Dense and chewy texturally with sturdy tannins, finishing with great tension and what Parker calls 2013’s “laser-like” precision. Drink now-2028.

Compared to $60 on release. Just $24/bottle on WineAccess.