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Rudd Winery

Rudd Winery In 1996, food and wine entrepreneur Leslie Rudd realized his 30-year dream of owning a winery in Napa Valley when he purchased a 55-acre estate in Oakville, an appellation recognized for outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends. Today the red, rocky soils have been replanted and a stone winery with 22,000 square feet of subterranean caves has been built. This picturesque site is flanked by the renowned vineyards of Dalla Valle, Opus One, Harlan Estate, Screaming Eagle, Phelps Backus and Silver Oak. Leslie Rudd hails from Wichita, Kansas. In addition to managing Standard Beverage Corporation, his home state's largest wine and spirits wholesaler, Leslie has forged a career in handcrafted luxury items and fine food, most notably as Chairman of Dean & DeLuca, the upscale nationwide purveyor of specialty foods, housewares and California wines. At Rudd Vineyards & Winery, the vintner has focused his love of fine-tuned artisanal tradition to create the first and only venture bearing his family's name. It will be a lasting legacy for his daughter, Samantha, and for many generations come. A quest for excellence and the financial resources to support it is what makes Rudd Oakville's most exciting up-and-coming winery. To make the best use of the winery's outstanding resources, Charles Thomas has joined the Rudd team as Vice President, Director of Vineyards & Winemaking. Charles brings to Rudd over 25 years of winemaking and management experience. Charles is best known for his achievements at Mondavi as head Winemaker, Kendall Jackson as Director of Production, and as the Winemaker for the prestigious Cardinale Estate Winery in Oakville. Charles shares Mr. Rudd's vision of making wines to rival the best in the world. Working closely with Charles is vineyard manager and Napa Valley native Terry Mathison, whose work was rated "100" by world-renowned Australian viticulturist Richard Smart PhD. Beginning with the 2000 vintage, Rudd is producing a cabernet family blend from the re-planted Oakville estate. Rudd also has close ties with a number of small, high-end growers allowing Rudd to produce small quantities of Sauvignon Blanc from the Napa Valley and Chardonnay from the Bacigalupi Vineyard in the Russian River Valley.

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Address Web Social
500 Oakville Cross Road, Oakville, CA, US, 94562 Email: info@ruddwines.com
Phone: 707-944-8577 Web: www.ruddwines.com
Fax: 707-968-3807
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Products



  Bacigalupi Vineyard Chardonnay
The Bacigalupi Vineyard is located on benchland along Westside Road within the fog belt of the Russian River Valley. The 2002 vintage of this vineyard- designate Chardonnay is Rudd’s fourth release from blocks 1,3 and 5 which were planted to old Wente clonal selections in the mid-1960’s. These same vines were the main source of the legendary 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that won the Paris Tasting in 1976. The vines are low yielding, producing fruit of intensely focused yet elegant flavors.
  Bacigalupi Vineyard Chardonnay
The 2003 vintage exhibits classic fruit and mineral aromas, a rich mid-palate and an extremely lengthy finish, typical characteristics produced by this old chardonnay vineyard. This wine also shows more of the musqué aromas often seen in old Wente selections. The harvest occurred September 17th and 18th. Once harvested, the grapes were gently whole-cluster pressed, and the juice was then gravity-fed to French oak barrels in Rudd’s underground caves. Native yeasts were allowed to induce a leisurely primary fermentation, then native bacteria completed the malolactic fermentation. Weekly stirring of the lees occurred until the secondary fermentation was complete in late spring, and then the wine was stirred monthly for the remainder of time in barrel. After 17 months in barrel, the wine was racked to tank, settled, and minimally fined before being bottled unfiltered in May 2005.
  Jericho Canyon Red
Jericho Canyon Vineyard is located on the eastern slope of the Vaca Mountains at the northern end of Napa Valley. This boxed canyon is home to twelve blocks of steeply terraced Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. While northern Napa is known for its summer heat, a gap in the Mayacamas Range allows cooling winds to create temperatures at this vineyard similar to those found at Rudd's estate vineyard in Oakville. In 2000, the hillside plantings and temperate climate produced a wine of great elegance and finesse.
  Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc
The 2003 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc is produced from the same three vineyard sources as our critically acclaimed 2002 Sauvignon Blanc. One vineyard source is in Oakville, a second in Rutherford and the third, which includes plantings of the Sauvignon Musque clone, is in Yountville. This wine exhibits the richness and classic varietal flavor that have become the hallmark of Rudd's approach to Sauvignon Blanc. It displays a complex integration of tropical fruits and herbs framed by crisp, refreshing citrus.
  Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc
The 2004 growing season was the earliest in nearly 20 years. A dry, late winter ended with three warm spells – the first in late February, then in mid-March, and again in late April. This shifted the whole season – bud break, flowering, veraison and harvest – two to three weeks earlier than normal. The harvest began on August 12 and was completed over a sixteen-day period. The Oakville fruit was first, followed by Rutherford and finally the Semillon on August 28. Once harvested, the grapes were gently whole-cluster pressed, then gravity-fed to barrels in Rudd’s underground caves. Native yeasts were allowed to induce fermentation. This primary fermentation was completed in a combination of new and used French oak, concrete eggs, and stainless steel barrels. The concrete eggs, which are the first to be used in the United States, have added another dimension to our winemaking. Somewhat larger than a barrel, the porous concrete material gives the richness of an oak barrel fermentation, but with the varietal purity of a stainless steel barrel. The wine was stirred and topped monthly for seven months, then racked, fined and bottled without filtration in late May 2005. To ensure consistent excellence in every bottle, we bottled the 2004 Sauvignon Blanc with screw caps.
  Rudd Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2002 Rudd Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon was produced from the newly re-planted vineyards of our benchland site in Oakville. The vineyard is planted in very rocky, red volcanic soils using low-vigor rootstock, in a high-density, 4' x 4' vine spacing. The Cabernet Sauvignon for this wine came from the highly regarded Bordeaux clone #337 and two intensely-flavored, historic California clones, #4 and #15. The Cabernet Franc is clone #1, the Merlot is clone # 181, the Petit Verdot is clone # 400, and the Malbec is from clones #9 and #595. All of these low-yielding clones were planted because they consistently give high quality and are very effective at expressing our Oakville terroir.
  Rudd Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2003 Rudd Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon is the third vintage produced from the newly re-planted vineyards of our benchland site in Oakville. The vineyard is planted in very rocky, red volcanic soils using low-vigor rootstock, in a high-density, 4’ x 4’ vine spacing. The Cabernet Sauvignon for this wine came from the highly regarded Bordeaux clone #337 and two intensely-flavored, historic California clones, #4 and #15. The Cabernet Franc is clone #1, the Merlot is clone #181, the Petit Verdot is clone #400, and the Malbec is from clones #9 and #595. All of these low-yielding clones were planted because they consistently give high quality and are very effective at expressing our Oakville terroir.
  Rudd Oakville Estate Proprietary Red
The 2001 Rudd Oakville Estate is the second vintage from our newly replanted vineyard at the corner of Oakville Crossroad and Silverado Trail. Our vineyard is planted in rocky, red volcanic soils at the foot of the Vaca Mountains using high density planting and low vigor rootstock to encourage the vines to produce smaller, highly concentrated berries. The 2001 was made primarily from Clone 337 Cabernet Sauvignon, a Bordeaux clone that has proven very successful in our Oakville terroir.
  Rudd Oakville Estate Proprietary Red
The 2002 Rudd Oakville Estate Proprietary Red is the third vintage from our replanted vineyard at the corner of Oakville Crossroad and Silverado Trail. This benchland vineyard is planted in rocky, red volcanic soils at the foot of the Vaca Mountains using high density planting and low rigor rootstock to encourage the vines to produce smaller, highly concentrated berries. The 2002 was made primarily from Clone 337 Cabernet Sauvignon, a Bordeaux clone that has proven very successful at expressing our Oakville terroir. (79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, 6% Petit Verdot, 3% Merlot and 1% Malbec)

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