2003 Schrader Old Sparky Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard

(a selection of the best barrels from three blocks) Medium ruby. Blackberry, minerals and licorice on the nose. A dense, sweet fruit bomb in the mouth, with lush black fruit flavors offering outstanding persistence. Tannins are quite fine. All four of these wines were aged for 20 months in 100% Darnajou barrels, with the exception of the wine labeled simply cabernet sauvignon, which was aged in a 90/10 blend of Darnajou and Taransaud.

Nearly as tannic as the Schrader Beckstoffer To-Kalon, the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon Old Sparky Beckstoffer To- Kalon Vineyard is the first vintage where Thomas Brown and the Schraders were able to use all of their clones in the blend. Relatively backward and not as open-knit aromatically and fragrant as the T6 or RBS, and not as exuberant as the Schrader To-Kalon, it possesses fabulous intensity, a full-bodied richness and lots of blue and black fruit notes intermixed with graphite and cedarwood. This impressive young wine reminds me of a first growth Pauillac. Forget it for 4-5 years and drink it over the following two decades. ||These wines represent an obsessive-compulsive intellectual study of the effect of different Cabernet Sauvignon clones in a single vineyard, in this case, the great Beckstoffer To-Kalon site in Oakville. Made by Thomas Brown for Fred (Old Sparky) and Carol Schrader, these wines are all stunning. At age ten, they are just beginning to reveal some nuances and differences illustrated by this clonal exercise.||Tel. (707) 942-1212 Wine Advocate.June, 2013