I’ve never had wine from this producer before but my local wine store has some bottle for the 2012 Rudius Cabernet Sauvignon Kaley Elizabeth Oakville and the 2012 Rudius Panek. I looked at there website but didn’t see either wine listed there. Is the elizabeth the same as the regular Oakville? If you had to choose one for earlier consumption which one?
Are these great wines on par with Myriad or Quivet?
Never had them but I do remember reading an article somewhere about them increasing slightly in value on the second market if that means anything. Wish I could be of more help
Joe - I buy Rudius and most of the Mike Smith cabs and love them all. I would say that if you enjoy Myriad and Quivet, you will most likely like the Rudius cabs as well. I would definitely buy the Panek and give it a nice decant and try.
Joe, in 2012, the Kaley Elizabeth Oakville is NOT the regular which has been called Napa. It is a more expensive (almost double) than the Napa done to celebrate the birth of the daughter.
The Panek is about $30 less, and the Napa is about $60 less.
To drink know between the two that you have at the store, I will go with the Kaley Elizabeth. If they are priced equally below $100, buy a lot of the Kaley Elizabeth Oakville.
In 2013, as from their webpage, there are two cabs, one is the Oakville (which will apparently substitute the Napa) and the other is Farella (which is $20 more)
Rudius is Jeff Ames own label. He also makes wine for Tor Kenward. All of the Rudius and Tor wines are outstanding. We barrel tasted the 14’s with Jeff this summer and they too were outstanding. Of the 12’s my personal favorites were the Knockmore and the Panek.
On a WB recommendation (I think from Pobega), I bought two bottles of the regular Rudius 2012 Napa cab, on some bargain (maybe $40-50?).
I tried one, and it was quite good. Definitely modern, ripe and well oaked, but not quite over the line for me personally. It didn’t seem like something to age very long, though - the tannins were pretty soft already. I might serve the other bottle to guests at a Christmas dinner party, it should be a hit there.
That Knockmore is killer. Not sure if the Fion Bainise is a regular thing, but that’s a great early drinker as well.
Delicious modern cabs to drink young IMO. I’ve had multiple 5-8 year aged bottles of Tor that showed a lot of heat. They were beauties when young though. Jeff is a great guy too.