Thomas Rivers Brown and his wife Genevieve Marie Walsh have quickly made Rivers-Marie one of California’s most sought after Pinot Noir labels. The winery was founded in 2002 and the first release was the Rivers-Marie Summa Vineyard Pinot Noir. In addition to the line up of Single Vineyard Pinot Noirs, Rivers-Marie also makes a few single vineyard Cabernets and Chardonnay. Thomas is in high demand and serves as a consultant for a number of wineries including Schrader and Outpost.
I decided to open the ’07 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon to ponder the Rivers-Marie Cabernet Release email that was sitting in my inbox. This wine was decanted for just 30 minutes and served with an awesome flank steak.
Purple in color. 14.5% ABV. Gorgeous nose of red and blue fruits, molten licorice, violets and saddle leather. Big, rich and plush. Tremendous balance and mouth feel. Blueberries, cassis liqueur, currants and graphite on the palate. Silky tannins on an exceptionally long finish. Stunning Cabernet Sauvignon from a fantastic vintage that thoroughly exceeded my lofty expectations. Best over the next 2-4 years.
My rating: 94 points.
This showing certainly confirmed my suspicion that I should act soon and order my allocation of the ’17 Rivers-Marie Cabernet lineup. Admittedly I am a bigger fan of the Pinots but the Cabernets are not to be outdone and are very fairly priced.
Rivers-Marie wines are only available via their mailing list. Sign up for the mailing list if you have not done so already.
I’ve blogged about Rivers-Marie previously in the 2018 Zinfandel Chronicles Power Rankings and Updates from Rivers-Marie.
Nice note, Tom. Did you pull the trigger fast enough on the ’17 lineup? The 110 cases of Lore cab was gone in 3 hours after opening…
I missed the Lore but won’t lose much sleep over it.