Old Sparky is a botteling from a selection of the finest barrels of the vintage of Schrader Cellars' Beckstoffer To Kalon, and the 2023 vintage consists entirely of Napa Valley-grown Cabernet Sauvignon. The grapes were sourced from the original N2S Heritage Clone block, which forms the backbone of the blend, supplemented by the southern To Kalon block, vineyards near the Mondavi winery, and grapes from Monastery Block 14, which is planted to Clone 685. Bottled solely in magnum and only 2,124 magnum bottles were produced.
The 2023 growing season was long and cool. The average temperature was significantly lower than it was in recent years. Alowing for the longest growing season in over a decade, due to the the mild and consistant temperatures, an extended hang time was possible, and with the ideal conditions a generous yield created a great vintage.
Thomas Rivers Brown made this wine, which was aged entirely in new oak barrels. It stands out for its deep, concentrated flavors and intensity, with ripe, dark fruit harmonizing with minerality and a pencil-lead-like edge. On the palate, a multi-layered and rich flavor profile unfolds, with robust tannins blending smoothly to leave a long, harmonious finish. While already impressive, it will shine even brighter with aging; decanting is recommended when drinking it young. It is best enjoyed between 2030 and 2050.
James Suckling (100)
Super generous and suave, with melted tannins, almost-sweet fruit, chocolate, mint, cherry cream, oodles of indulgent spices and ripe fruit, and then the tannins tighten up to give great structure. So concentrated and layered, showing finesse and subtlety with power. It’s intricate, complex, age-worthy and harmonious. Drinkable now if you must, but best from 2035.
Jeb Dunnuck (99)
The first release of this cuvée from the new Mondavi parcels, the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Old Sparky is released only in magnum and raised all in new oak. It's a powerful, structured effort with an inky hue and ripe black fruits, graphite, crushed stone, lead pencil, and tobacco leaf that define the aromatics. It's incredibly concentrated, has a great mid-palate, a layered, building sense of structure, huge tannins, and a great finish. Hats off to Thomas Rivers Brown for continuing the incredible quality of this cuvée. Hide bottles for a decade if you can and it will keep for 30+ years. There are 2,124 bottles produced.
Decanter (100)
This is the first 'Old Sparky' from the Mondavi To Kalon site in its new iteration for Thomas Rivers Brown, who had previously sourced fruit from Beckstoffer To Kalon. Always bottled in Magnum, here's the breakdown of fruit: the original N2S heritage clone block serves as the anchor, with blended parcels from To Kalon's southern blocks, including those that contribute to Schrader's new TKS and HMS bottlings, along with parcels from near the Mondavi winery and the Monastery Block 14, planted to Clone 685. Though Brown assured me this was all 'trial-and-error,' the wine is exceptional, if not accidentally so. It was Brown's richest, plushest, and most structured wine of the set I tasted, delivering the greatest aromatic intensity and palate impression, and it's a clear cellar-worthy candidate. For all its power, it retains a mark of freshness because of the long, cool growing season. In the glass, floral and rose petal lead, followed by savoury sagebrush, black olive and hints of liquorice. The fruit profile spans blue to black to red. Tasted over the course of an entire week, a glass or two at a time, it consistently improved with air, leaning into a more loamy earth and black-fruited character. Above all, it continued to offer immense drinking pleasure.
