2007 Schrader Cabernet Sauvignon Georges III Beckstoffer Napa

(97+ Points) The 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer George III Vineyard comes from clone 337, from a Beckstoffer-owned vineyard in Rutherford. Its dense purple color is followed by a big, sweet nose of black cherries, black currants, cedar, spice box, and subtle oak. Enormously concentrated and full-bodied with superb minerality as well as tannic structure, it will benefit from 4-5 years of bottle age, and should evolve for three decades. Are readers totally confused about the multiple clonal experiments and single block Schrader Cabernet Sauvignons? All of them emanate from the Beckstoffer To-Kalon Vineyard with one exception, the George III Vineyard in Rutherford. Schrader’s mission statement is essentially one where their 30-year leases on vineyard parcels give them the ability to present a specific clonal study of Cabernet Sauvignon from three highly desired clones (4, 6, and 337) grown within a single vineyard. Perhaps this is more than most people want or need to know. The bottom line is that with their production averages about 1,600 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon, the wines do have subtle differences, but most importantly, all of them are extraordinary in quality – among the finest wines one could possibly find in the world. Fred Schrader and his wife, Carol, hired Thomas Brown to make these wines. Their 2006s were among the finest wines of that vintage, their 2008s look to be among the top wines I tasted in that year, and the 2007s, universally acknowledged as a great vintage for Napa, are spectacular. All of these cuvees are aged in 100% new French oak, mostly Darnajou barrels with a sprinkling of Taransaud. Wine Advocate # 186, Dec 2009