Winemaker Notes
Always a favorite among our team and friends, the 2018 Schrader RBS continues this tradition. Luxurious aromas of blueberry crème brûlée, mixed black and blue fruit mélange, and red cherries burst from the glass with an enticing hint of lightly grilled brioche bread. The ripe fruit flavors dance along the palate and intertwine with flavors of roasted coffee and salted churned butter. The wine’s ample fruit focus is balanced by supple, velvety tannins that give way to an astonishingly silky-smooth finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Another heavenly wine in the lineup is the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard RBS, which comes from Clone 337 and a handful of different blocks in the vineyard. This deep purple-hued beauty has an incredibly seamless, elegant, yet full-bodied style as well as killer notes of creme de cassis, blueberries, wildflowers, violets, white chocolate, and new saddle leather. Flirting with perfection, the tannin quality, purity of fruit, balance, and overall harmony here is just about off the charts. It makes you want to drink the whole bottle, but it should age effortlessly for 25+ years.
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James Suckling
Aromas of red fruit, plums, herbs and dark chocolate with some bark and forest-floor notes. Full-bodied, yet very finely crafted and poised. Lots of fresh and dry herbs to the dark fruit at the finish. Lasts a long time.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Schrader’s RBS comes from Beckstoffer’s To Kalon vineyard in Oakville, produced from 337 clone grown on blocks B1, B2 and E2. The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon RBS Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, aged in 100% new Darnajou and Taransaud French oak barrels for 18 months. Deep garnet-purple in color, it leaps from the glass with gregarious exotic spice scents—cumin seed, cloves and star anise—over a core of Black Forest cake, blueberry compote and black currant pastilles plus a waft of underbrush. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is completely coated with spicy, open-knit black fruit preserves flavors, marked by bright red-fruit accents. Supported by great tension and velvety tannins, it finishes on a lingering cinnamon toast note.
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Wine Spectator
This is packed with steeped plum, blackberry and boysenberry fruit flavors, yet cuts a very focused line nonetheless, with a graphite underpinning keeping the fruit harnessed while licorice, alder and tar nots fill in on the back end. A muscular version that demands cellar time. Best from 2024 through 2038.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Home to some of the most sought-after Cabernet Sauvignon in America, Napa Valley’s Oakville district stretches across the center of Napa's valley floor and foothills between the Vaca and Mayacamas Mountains. This AVA is home to the legendary To Kalon Vineyard and Martha's Vineyard, as well as many powerhouse wineries including Screaming Eagle, Silver Oak, Robert Mondavi, Opus One, Far Niente and Groth.
The climate is generally warm and agreeable, resulting in year after year of favorable vintages. Summer days see a gentle tug of war between warmer inland air and the cool air coming in from the San Pablo Bay, creating an ideal environment to grow red varieties. Oakville's diverse soils, namely ancient sea bedrock, clay and gravel, are well-drained, and perfect for high-caliber viticulture.
Cabernet here is often bottled varietally but is also popular in Bordeaux Blends. Oakville wines are known for their silky, sensual textures, structured tannins, dark and brooding fruit and lovely aromatics. These age-worthy and prestigious wines are favored by collectors throughout the world.