2010 Napa Cabs are very difficult to find, these days, but your Intrepid Wine Spies are always on the case. Today’s example is a fruit-filled, elegant, refined beauty with lot’s of life still left in it. This wine is offered to you with our strong recommendation. Stock up on this one, Operative!

One of our very favorite winemakers, the talented, incomparable Rudy Zuidema is back! This time, he brings us his remarkable Encanto Vineyards 2010 Usibelli Ranch Rutherford Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine hails from the decade-busting 2010 Napa Cab vintage, which earned a stellar 98 points from Wine Spectator Magazine’s Editor in Chief, James Laube.

This wine is deep, dark and inky, with a heart of darkest sanguine red. At the rim of the glass, a fine loop of cherry red encircles the wine. Shy at first, this wine really opens up after just a few minutes, revealing bold aromas of spiced black cherry, blackberry preserve, black currant, dark tobacco leaf, hard leather, spice box, cedar, and a hint of darkly toasted oak. Darkly delicious and bursting with bold flavors of blackberry compote, black cherry reduction, fresh ripe blackberry, slate mineral, chalky cocoa, cassis, baker’s chocolate, spice box, and a hint of cigar box. Extra long and very elegant, with soft tannins that add grip to the edges of the palate. Slowly, a chewy dryness encroaches, spreading to the far corners of the palate. This wine wants to be best friends with your favorite grilled meats, especially red meats with a hint of char. The combination is divine!

Enjoy!