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 its incredible vineyard sourcing (Beckstoffer To Kalon, Las Piedras, and Georges III) and remarkably gifted winemaker, Thomas Brown. Since its inception, Schrader has achieved a total of thirty-five 100-point scores from the likes of The Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator, Jeb Dunnuck, and James Suckling.

In 1988, Fred Schrader was a thriving dealer in the world of art and antiques when his good friend and Christie's auctioneer, Brian Cole, invited him to the Napa Valley Wine Auction. A lover of wine and adventure, Fred happily accepted the invitation and soon found himself enjoying delicious wines while spending time with some of the valley’s most notable founders.

Fred tasted a barrel sample of Cabernet in 2000 that changed the course of his life. On a quest to produce wine with similar depth and uniqueness, he discovered the source of the extraordinary grapes to be the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville. Fred knew he had found the source for great Cabernet, and he set out to secure grapes from this remarkable estate.

This quest led Fred directly to the office of legendary grape grower W. Andrew Beckstoffer. The partnership began with a small, but stunning selection of vine rows in the historic Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard. As the years clipped by, we expanded our reach in the vineyard, and today the finest blocks are dedicated to growing Schrader Cabernet.

Fred approached Thomas Rivers Brown about joining his new Cabernet project. Thomas had just moved to the valley and showed a great passion for winemaking. The biggest challenge — he had never made a bottle of Cabernet, only Zinfandel. Where others may have been daunted, Fred saw this as an opportunity.

Our flagship Cabernet, this broad, muscular wine displays classic fruit characters of dark berries, currants and briar fruit complemented with delicious notes of violets and sweet spice. Elegant threads of graphite and crushed rock minerality weave through the mass of ripe fruit and provide further dimension and complexity to the wine. Exceptionally rich and concentrated, the 2010 Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is a tower of Cabernet power with enormous structure and firm, grippy tannins that amply support the intense fruit core.

First planted in 1868 by viticultural and winemaking icon Hamilton Crabb, To Kalon Vineyard® has long been regarded as the source of Napa Valley’s finest Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. Within the prime vineyard blocks, an alluvial fan provides excellent and varied mineral deposits, and the rich soils are filled with marine sediment that gives our wines their distinctive profiles. The vines receive full sun and optimal heat during the day and are cooled by marine fog at night. These conditions allow the Cabernet Sauvignon planted in the vineyard to display its own unique character, and this celebration of individuality is the essence of Schrader ®.

Vintage

The 2010 growing season began cool and wet, and by early summer we knew harvest would be delayed by as much as three weeks. Growers around the valley feared the cooler season would not allow the grapes to fully ripen so many, including us, made early thinning passes through the vineyard to reduce the crop load and concentrate the vines’ energy. While it was the right thing to do, the decision of when to thin and by how much proved critical as the Napa Valley sweltered under a late August heat spike which saw temperatures climb above the 110 degree mark. We were fortunate, as our vines handily endured the extreme weather and the clusters showed little evidence of sunburn or shrivel. Following this one significant heat event, we enjoyed an extended spell of warm, Indian summer weather that carried through until early October. The ideal conditions allowed the clusters to gain optimal ripeness and maturity.

96 Pts. “Delivers a rich, potent mix of layered flavors that are deep and pure, brimming with black licorice, dark berry, mocha, tea and floral notes that are tight, focused and persistent, with gutsy tannins.”
— James Laube, Wine Spectator

94+ Pts. “The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is the most tannic of these cuvees. It exhibits an opaque purple color along with a big, intense perfume, but the wine is closed, structured, muscular and masculine in the mouth. There are only 52 cases, compared to 370 cases in 2012, so good luck finding any. This offering was made from clone 4, 6 and 337, making it one of the few multiple clone wines in the Schrader portfolio.”
— Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate