Wine reviews
I’ll keep my notes short, since I’ll be tasting this wine from bottle next year, but the 2014s from Schrader are among the highlights of this vintage, which is certainly an excellent one in Napa, but destined to be lost in the massive shadows cast by 2012 and 2013. The Cabernet Sauvignon should ultimately score in the mid-90s, with the potential that it may reach the upper 90s. In any event, the wine came in at about 14.4% to 14.5% natural alcohol. It looks to be a superduper vintage for Schrader; I do think if the 2014s turn out to be a better vintage certainly than 2011, they will still be behind both 2012 and 2013. -RP
The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon RBS is made from the same clone (337) as the Georges III, but comes from the To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville and not the Rutherford Georges III. This was aged in 85% new Darnajou and 15% new Taransaud. It has fabulous concentration, notes of incense, licorice, blackcurrants, blackberries, as well as spring flowers. The wine is juicy, savory and full-bodied, with wonderful underlying energy and freshness. This wine is a more forward style than we saw with the 2013s, and is best drunk over the next 16-20 years.- RP As I have written in the past, the Schrader project with Thomas Rivers Brown as their winemaker started as a look at one of Napa Valley’s historic and first-growth vineyard sites – the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville. It has expanded now to include Beckstoffer’s Las Piedras Vineyard in St. Helena and the Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard in Rutherford. It is basically a study of clonal selections by keeping these wines separate and apart, but enjoying the identical winemaking, upbringing in the cellars and bottling. The bottom line is that these are just hands-down fabulous Cabernet Sauvignons and have been since the project debuted more than ten years ago. The difference between each of them is generally minor and I will probably end up giving slightly different reviews when the wines are in bottle – because they are all at the top of the pyramid of quality. Any one of them is essentially a world-class Cabernet Sauvignon that could compete with the finest made anywhere in the world. So, I will try and articulate the differences of the bottled 2014s and then summarize the 2015
Masters richness, with finesse and refinement. This is a beauty built of deep dark fruit and toasty, vanilla-scented oak, maintaining weight and focus while showing off flashes of elegance and polish. Drink now through 2032. – J.L.