Beckstoffer To Kalon

OAKVILLE ▪ NAPA VALLEY

To Kalon — Greek for “the highest beauty” — is the vineyard by which Napa Valley Cabernet is measured. Napa pioneer Hamilton Walker Crabb first planted these Oakville benchlands in 1868, and the site has produced the valley’s most coveted red grapes in every era since. Beckstoffer Vineyards acquired its portion of the historic vineyard in 1993 and replanted it between 1994 and 1997 to multiple clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc with modern trellising and close vine spacing.

The soils are Bale loam and Bale clay loam — loam through the first two feet giving way to gravelly loam beneath — affording the drainage and rooting depth that concentrate these small, thick-skinned berries. Clones 4, 337, 6 and 7 each bring their own register, and we craft our cuvées block by block and barrel by barrel.

Since 2000, Carter Cellars has drawn from To Kalon the wines that carry our reputation: the massively structured ‘The O.G.’ from the original block; the instantly appealing ‘The Grand Daddy’ from older clone 4 vines; the rich and elegant ‘The Three Kings’; ‘The F.RED’ from the former Schrader blocks; and, from the very best barrels of the vineyard, ‘The G.T.O.’ — a wine that has been awarded perfect scores across nine vintages.