2016 Schrader "Old Sparky" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (1.5L - OWC)

My notes on the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Old Sparky Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard started with 'Wow, what a nose' and finished with a few expletives. Based largely on the T6 Cabernet Sauvignon from To Kolan, with smaller amounts of the RBS, CCS, and Schrader, it’s a massive wine by any measure yet carries everything perfectly, with perfumed notes of crème de cassis, incense, flowers, and exotic spice, full-bodied richness, an expansive, mulit-dimensional texture, sweet tannins, and no sensation of weight or heaviness. It’s a monumental bottle of wine that made me want to downgrade every other wine I tasted for this report. It’s bottled only in magnum, so do your best to hold off for 6-7 years (good luck!) and it will keep for 3-4 decades. Bravo to the whole team at Schrader for a truly magical wine.

The purity of fruit to this is phenomenal with so much blackberry and raspberry aroma, following through to a full body with wonderfully seamless, horizontal tannins that melt into the wine. Extremely fine-grained. Greatest Schrader ever made – if you appreciate elegance with power.