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 T6 was one of my super-favorites of the 2014s. Slightly higher in alcohol at 14.7%, compared to the RBS at 14.4% and the GIII at 14.3%, it is a kick-ass Cabernet Sauvignon, with a sexy display of black fruits, licorice, camphor, graphite and background oak. This is from clone 6 of the To Kalon Vineyard aged in 95% new Darnajou and 5% Taransaud barrels. So, as readers can see, the differences are minor, indeed. However, they are slightly different wines. This is a bold, opulent wine and one of my favorites of the 2014s. Drink it over the next 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 sightly 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 2015s.
A little ragged and rustic around the edges, with a solid core of rich, dense, extracted dark berry fruit, shaded by clack licorice and toasty oak notes. Best from 2019 through 2033. – J.L