Schrader Cellars CCS Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

$425

100 Points Parker - limited                                 Limited new release from Schrader Cellars. 100 Points Jeb Dunnuck:  "A wine that’s going to flirt with perfection as well as be one of the wines of the vintage, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon CCS Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard offers a real “wow” nose of assorted black and blue fruits, candied violets, incense, and fruitcake. Showing more minerality with time in the glass, it’s full-bodied, has sensational purity of fruit, sweet tannins, and a huge finish. Yes, please." The Schraders, working with well-known winemaking consultant Thomas Rivers Brown, continue to farm and produce some of the world’s greatest Cabernet Sauvignons from three fabulous Beckstoffer-owned vineyards: the To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville, the Georges III Vineyard in Rutherford and the Las Piedras Vineyard in St. Helena. To Kalon is gravelly, eluvial, loamy soils; Georges III Vineyard is an old creek bed; and Las Piedras Vineyard in St. Helena is planted on old river rock and gravelly loam. All of these blocks utilized for Schrader’s wines encompass over 25+ acres and are custom-farmed – as Fred Schrader likes to say, essentially “virtual vineyards,” even though they’re not owned by the Schraders. Their initial focus, which has proven so successful, is essentially a microscopic study of different clones planted in different blocks with exactly the same philosophy of viticulture, harvesting, winemaking, élevage and bottling. Production of all the 2012s, which was a slightly more generous and later harvest than 2013 with bigger berries, ranges from 200 cases for the Old Sparky and Georges III, to 520 for the CCS, 420 for the T6, 625 for the RBS, 370 for the Schrader, 620 for the LPV and 100 cases for the newest baby, the Colesworthy, which is a selection of the best barrels of their Las Piedras offering. Some of the other characteristics of these wines are that they all spend about 20 months in barrel, but the percentages of new Darnajou and new Taransaud varied from cuvée to cuvée, although the CCS is 100% new Darnajou, as are the Old Sparky and the Colesworthy. Finished alcohol on the 2012s is in line with other vintages, at 14.4%-14.6%. And in 2013, virtually identical numbers of 14.4%-14.6% were achieved. The consistency and the analytical aspects of the wines is mirrored in the incredible quality that Schrader has produced.                                                 

Share Schrader Cellars CCS Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard  Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 on FacebookShare Schrader Cellars CCS Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard  Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 on TwitterShare Schrader Cellars CCS Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard  Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 via email

Ratings on Delectable

Martin Pichinson

Full body and as smooth as it gets.

Full body and as smooth as it gets.

9.5

Martin Pichinson

Full and full of flavor

Full and full of flavor

9.5

Joe Flo

8 hrs of decanting helped.

8 hrs of decanting helped.

9.6

Robert Rothfield

Silky smooth tannins… the most fruited Schrader I can remember

Silky smooth tannins… the most fruited Schrader I can remember

9.4

WARNING: DRINKING DISTILLED SPIRITS, BEER, COOLERS, WINE AND OTHER ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES MAY INCREASE CANCER RISK, AND, DURING PREGNANCY, CAN CAUSE BIRTH DEFECTS.