Schrader Aston Estate Pinot Noir 2010
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Deep garnet in color, the wine opens with a mesmerizing flavor cadre of super-ripe red cherries, briar berries and freshly harvested plums that carry through from start to satisfying finish. The lavish and abundant fruit characters are complemented by gorgeous accents of mandarin peel, rose petal and sweet herbs. Provocative notes of loamy earth and toasted spice interwoven with an alluring thread of vanilla cream beautifully enhance the lush, smooth texture of the wine. Full-bodied and immensely satisfying, this is a truly delicious, complete wine with great natural acidity, prodigious weight and fine balance.
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Wine Spectator
Offers great intensity, richness and range of flavor, built around wild berry, raspberry and blackberry, ending with loamy richness and notes of crushed rock and black licorice. Drink now through 2023.
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2014-
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Fred Schrader founded Schrader Cellars in 1998 with a goal of making the best Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon possible. Since then, the brand has gained renown for incredible vineyard sourcing and remarkably gifted winemaker, Thomas Brown. Since its inception, Schrader has achieved a total of twenty-seven 100-point scores from the likes of The Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator, Jeb Dunnuck, and James Suckling.
For more than a decade Schrader Cellars has produced benchmark Cabernet Sauvignon from the most prestigious vineyards in the Napa Valley — notably the first-growth Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville, along with Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard in Rutherford, Beckstoffer Las Piedras in Northwest St. Helena, and newly the Monastery Block To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville. Thomas Brown, a South Carolina native, didn’t grow up in the wine business, but after extensively exploring the wine regions of France, Italy, and Northern California, he knew where he belonged. In 1996, Thomas moved to Napa Valley and began working in a wine shop. Wanting to cut his teeth in winemaking, he began working in acclaimed cellars with industry legends. In 2000, destiny circled around and Thomas met Fred Schrader at the same fine wine shop. Although Thomas had yet to make a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, Fred recognized his unwavering passion, fantastic natural ability, and dedication to winemaking, and hired him to do just that for his namesake brand, Schrader. Since then, the duo has developed a portfolio of benchmark Cabernet Sauvignons renowned for their “no holds barred” character. Thomas has achieved unprecedented success in record time and has revealed himself to be a true visionary of wine.
The Sonoma Coast AVA is large in area but, not counting overlapping regions like Russian River Valley, only has a few thousand acres of grapevines—and it’s no wonder. Much of the region is rugged and not easily accessible. Its proximity to the Pacific Ocean’s fog and cool breezes limits the varieties that can be cultivated, but it proves to be an ideal environment for high quality Pinot Noir.
Since fog is a frequent fact of life here, as are heavy marine layers that sometimes bring rain, the best vineyards are wisely planted above the fog line, on picturesque ridges that capture enough sun to provide even ripening. That, with the overnight drop in temperature that reliably preserves acidity, results in fine expressions of Pinot Noir that often receive tremendous critic and consumer praise alike, and are often in high demand.