Schrader Beckstoffer To Kalon CCS 2007 3.0L OWC

2007 Schrader - Wine Advocate #186 - Dec 2009: There is something about the inky/purple-hued 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To-Kalon Vineyard CCS (clone 4) that blows me away. The most opulent, perfumed, and accessible of these wines, it exhibits an opaque purple color as well as an extraordinary density and richness in addition to copious creme de cassis, cedar, ink, and spice box characteristics. As with all of these wines, there is a seamless integration of acidity, tannin, wood, and alcohol in addition to phenomenal length and ripeness. The multidimensional personality and full-bodied style, with both power and elegance, is compelling. This amazing effort can be drunk now, but it will be even better in 4-5 years, and should unfold gracefully over the following 30+ years. Are readers totally confused about the multiple clonal experiments and single block Schrader Cabernet Sauvignons? All of them emanate from the Beckstoffer To-Kalon Vineyard with one exception, the George III Vineyard in Rutherford. Schraders mission statement is essentially one where their 30-year leases on vineyard parcels give them the ability to present a specific clonal study of Cabernet Sauvignon from three highly desired clones (4, 6, and 337) grown within a single vineyard. Perhaps this is more than most people want or need to know. The bottom line is that with their production averages about 1,600 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon, the wines do have subtle differences, but most importantly, all of them are extraordinary in quality among the finest wines one could possibly find in the world. Fred Schrader and his wife, Carol, hired Thomas Brown to make these wines. Their 2006s were among the finest wines of that vintage, their 2008s look to be among the top wines I tasted in that year, and the 2007s, universally acknowledged as a great vintage for Napa, are spectacular. All of these cuvees are aged in 100% new French oak, mostly Darnajou barrels with a sprinkling of Taransaud.