Wine Advisor
Schrader, Old Sparky Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Lisa Perrotti-Brown
Produced predominately from clone 4, as always, the “Old Sparky” label is a best barrel selection from Beckstoffer's To Kalon vineyard in Oakville. The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Old Sparky Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard was aged in 100% new Darnajou and Taransaud French oak barrels for 18 months. Deep garnet-purple in color, it needs a little coaxing to begin to reveal fragrant notions of crushed black currants, mulberries, juicy red and black plums and lilacs with hints of dark chocolate, rose oil and tilled soil plus a waft of unsmoked cigars. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is rich yet not at all heavy, featuring loads of bright red fruit accents among the profound black berry and savory elements. Multilayered, shimmering with energy and beautifully perfumed, it has gorgeous, ripe, plush tannins and a lively backbone, finishing very long and mineral laced. Bottled in magnums, 418 nine-liter cases were made.
About the Producer
Chateau Shad insists on producing wine in the most natural way, advocating the reduction of human intervention to produce the purest wine. A few weeks before the harvest, the winery regularly arranges staff to test the sweetness of the grapes, and the grapes that meet the standard will be manually picked in the cool night or early morning. After harvest, the grapes are manually sorted and de-stemmed, before being cold-macerated in stainless steel tanks to extract the colour and tannins from the skins, a process that usually lasts a week. After the cold maceration, alcoholic fermentation takes place, in which yeast converts the sugars in the grapes into alcohol and carbon dioxide, which escapes from the top of the stainless steel tank during the process. Once fermentation is complete, the wine is put into small French oak barrels for aging. The Cabernet Sauvignon wines produced by Chateau Chad are concentrated in aroma, with aromas of black fruit and spice, full-bodied, firm tannins and a long finish. Since 2001, Shad Winery has received a total of 27 full marks from professional wine scoring agencies. Among them, the winery produced Schrader Cellars CCS Cabernet Sauvignon (Schrader Cellars CCS Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA) and Schrader Cellars Old Sparky Cabernet Sauvignon (Schrader Cellars Old Sparky Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, USA) has received a perfect score from the Robert Parker Team for the third year in a row, and the 2007 vintages were also awarded blind tastings by senior editor James A. A perfect score from James Laube, which further cements Chateau Chad's position as a producer of the world's finest Cabernet Sauvignon.
