2019 Sullivan Rutherford Estate Coeur de Vigne Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 750 ml

Jim Sullivan knew he’d gotten his hands on some of the best vineyard land in California.

The late Napa Valley icon settled on the dusty, gravelly Rutherford bench back in 1972, four years before the Judgment of Paris made Napa a household name. It would be two decades before Rutherford would earn AVA status and another two before local cult-Cabernets would sell at auction for quadruple-digit prices. Yet somehow, he knew.

The Sullivan property contains half the soil types found in Napa Valley—impressive, even in a region defined by its geological diversity—and on the advice of his friend, the legendary André Tchelistcheff, Jim Sullivan planted Bordeaux varieties. Andy Beckstoffer snatched up a vineyard next door just a year later, and over the years, wineries like Quintessa and Alpha Omega would pop up and do the same thing. 

We could name Sullivan’s iconic neighbors all day, but a taste of this 2019 Coeur de Vigne Cabernet is all you really need to understand the winery’s prestige. The wine carries the same satiny heft that long ago inspired Robert Parker to call Sullivan wines “among the richest and most massively constituted” in Napa. It’s muscular yet supple, bold yet deeply complex, and laden with black-fruit opulence and powerful concentration. 

Composed of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petit Verdot, 2% Merlot, and 2% Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Coeur de Vigne was aged in 87% new French oak for a full 22 months. It has the kind of lush boldness that helped transform Rutherford from relatively unknown farmland to one of the world’s most sought-after Cabernet sites, and it’s why Sullivan is a perennial Wine Access favorite.