Gravel/crushed stone, whispers of cherry orchard, profundity, beauty, nuance, maturity – I’m not describing a wine, rather the historical section of To Kalon that Graeme and Alex MacDonald farm, today, that during prohibition had been planted to cherry trees.
Hypothetically, take a Renoir painting that sold for $7 at a garage sale in Indiana, that in the course of time was concealed behind a generic painting; to try and trace the serendipitous changes of hands from Renoir, himself, to Aunt Betsy’s box of miscellaneous items-to-sell will assuredly yield innumerable, inaccurate accounts of what took place when, where, why, and for the benefit/detriment of whom.
Meantime, I listened to Graeme, 31, and Alex, 29, vividly describe this site’s distinguished chronology. Though, just a few utterances deep, it had become self-evident that I’d never be able to do justice to the breadth of what Graeme(who has a penchant and knack for dredging things of bygone times), in particular, had been so eloquently enumerating.
The Detert’s, second-cousins to Graeme and Alex, farm in a different manner – completely. There’s not just that easement/egress(above, right) that separates their properties, but a whole array of differences in raising their respective vines. A stone’s kick away(above, right), Honeybee is chewing-on some dropped fruit at their cousin’s vineyard.
We carried-on, softly treading about the 20-year-old vines(seen below), as slowly as a lioness sneaking-up on her prey – lo, the hands of my wristwatch were out-pacing the arms of a ceiling fan.
I learned that on the back half of the 1800s, at the deft hands and foresight of the late Hamilton W. Crabb, an outdoor laboratory – if you will – was cultivated that spanned hundreds of acres, sown to hundreds of varieties of vinifera on bench-land in propinquity to Oakland. Crabb did very well for himself – vertically integrating his expanding enterprise of grape-growing and selling wine, nationally.
Two ancient rivers from Westward canyons(toward which the brothers pointed – just yonder) deposited – in geological proportions – a disproportionate gift for Cabernet Sauvignon. By those forces of nature this property was rewarded with a treasure trove of rock that so easily turns into fish-tank-like gravel. The density of gravel crowds-out or displaces soil whereby wherever you grab a handful from this 15 acres and you’re going to get rock, not soil; worms would sooner park themselves in a bird’s stomach than the belly of this vineyard – there’s nowhere to go(Graeme’s illustrated, below). By geological measures, their root systems are frolicking throughout 90% Gravel – unique to this oasis.
While getting a lesson about Alluvial fans, I was getting crushed under the weightiness of it all. It was time for a diversion – a little classroom Show-n-Tell. Since I was the only student, I was granted a sample rock to crack with my own hands. Sure enough, with little exertion it split into four pieces(see below).
It’s so palpable, just strolling around this sacred ground, that Robert Mondavi recognized that this invaluable section – from where he drew grapes – would turnout to be the core around which he assembled his Reserve To Kalon.
Crabb, who came from Ohio, was in want of riding the gold rush, but eventually found black gold because from the counsel of pioneer viticulturist, John Lewelling. Lewelling encouraged Crabb who had just settled East of the San Francisco Bay, to come North to plant some vines in Napa Valley. Crabb heeded Lewelling’s advice, and took it to an exciting level at the tail-end of 1860s. Previously noted, he experimentally planted all sorts of varieties – a huge volume of vinifera, much of it imported from France and Italy. But, as the 19th Century drew to a close, Crabb’s vineyards were succumbing to phylloxera which had, for years, been plaguing the Valley. And, by the turn of the 20th Century, Hamilton Crabb’s death consequently fractionated his holdings(let’s say), and amongst many assets, the To-Kalon Wine Co. was liquidated.
Like I stated, I just don’t want to get trapped in the weeds, trying to articulate the ebbs and flows, but suffice it to state: along came Martin and Caroline Stelling. Martin Stelling was adept at selling/purchasing real estate, and had grandiose plans for his thousands of acres(imagine that?) of land in the Valley that he had acquired. But, the big man upstairs had different plans for him. Before Martin’s sudden/abrupt departure to meet his maker, he was able to infuse “new oxygen” into the Valley, according to André Tchelistcheff. Bear in mind, Prohibition(1920 to 1933) had rolled-over much of what had been previously planted to vine, to other produce – mostly orchards.
For lovers of Mondavi’s I Block Sauvignon Blanc, they need to thank Martin, because not only was that one of his accomplishments(1945), amongst several other achievements, he also introduced to the Valley, the concept of planting blocks to one variety of grape.
While Martin Stelling was chatting with St. Peter at the pearly gates in the early ‘50s, Caroline was talking with potential buyers of their sizable portfolio of properties, not least of which, today, is demarcated: To Kalon. In 1954 Graeme and Alex’s great-grandparents purchased 40 acres – thereafter split 2 ways: 20 acres under the control of their great-uncle, Gunther Detert, and 20 acres under their grandparents’, Allen and Gabe Horton. The MacDonald brothers farm their family’s section consisting of 15 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon. Not to be confused with Detert’s vineyard which is not under the brothers’ thumbs, moreover is composed of Cabernet Franc.
Present-day, Graeme has undertaken a document-grab, trying to preserve rare treasures as special as a one-off receipt(upper-right-hand-corner) for 24 quarts of To Kalon wine, from the To-Kalon Wine Co.(upper-left) seen below in an aerial shot, for only $4.80 – for all 24!
Take note of the stakes that those workers(one of them resembles Teddy Roosevelt, doesn’t he?) had driven into the ground, because you’ll momentarily see them, again.
On its crest you could easily fit a round table top, or a big, big silver platter of cocktail shrimp if you temporarily removed that wooden stake for the afternoon.
I know that the image appears monstrous, but these beasts are Action Heroes, battling 60-years of climatic conditions; they should be celebrated, and protected. In their own right, Graeme and Alex are comparable Action Heroes – defending against tin-ear executives without a spec of dirt under their fingernails, divorced from anything but their lemming-like march toward industrialization. For instance, pretend that we walked just under a minute to the adjacent property(North-end) on which there exists only half of the original I Block Sav. Blanc vines(present-day Mondavi) planted by the visionary Martin Stelling. Only half of this tiny vineyard exists, because the other half was industrially/industriously leveled; commercially replaced by Cabernet Sauvignon.
Did Opus One really need a few more rows of Cab? Individually, the boys over at the Historic Vineyard Society probably passed gall-bladder stones the size of a watermelons when they bore witness to that evisceration.
In my inner-ear, Ralph Kramden was calling “Alice! Would you c’mere? Get a load of this!” Because Alex and Graeme sustain a veritable Garden of Eden, three specimens of saplings: Coastal Live Oak, Walnut, and Olive(above, right: the one that Graeme’s holding) had spontaneously sprouted within the hollow(see bottom, right) trunk of these ancient vines. In some instances, one could fit their leg into the cavity of these 60-year-old trunks.
Graeme employs 10% of what he learned at UC Davis, yet acknowledges that the most important thing his studies would impart was the wisdom to think two or three steps ahead in the winemaking cycle.
As we came down the back stretch, we had come full circle – metaphorically, and pragmatically. The brothers highlighted the attributes of their recent plantings(above) with a prescient magnitude of humility. If you recall, this nascent vineyard harkens back a few photos above to the 1906 shot of those men toiling the field. What jumped to mind was a Warren Buffet quote: “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Especially, in consideration of how esteemed is the land they’re occupying, these two, young brothers(one of whom just had a baby girl, Brooke) could have taken a fiscally more lucrative route – simply copied the 4’ x 4’ spacing of their neighbors, cropped the hell out of it, and sold-off those berry-nuggets-of-gold for years to come. Rather, these boys have brains that are wired for the Mars One mission. Alex and Graeme are shaping the future of this illustrious sliver of To Kalon real estate; their predecessors, contemporaries, mentors, and successors must be very proud.
In the vein of continuity, as had afflicted H. W. Crabb’s vineyards, this plot – planted to AXR rootstock – was buckling under the might of phylloxera. Graeme and four of his friends wielded some equipment to redevelop this block. Thereafter, this past Spring, the two brothers hand-planted their clonal repository of original To Kalon budwood, culled from four selections of distinction that have been re-propagated on the property for decades.
Alex had gone to retrieve the bottle that he had decanted a few hours earlier that we were about to drink in the kitchen – where Graeme resides(above). Inside there were shelves lined with books, both of modernity and antiquity. These guys have their feet so firmly planted on the ground, one can’t help themselves from becoming soulfully imbued, and drenched by their affection.
Now, for the hard part, for which – recently – I’ve been wrangling: What if you spend so many quality hours with winemakers and while endeared to them, you’re not to their wines? Thankfully, relative the following wine, I averted that dilemma.
The '12 MACDONALD(all caps is how they’ve elected to brand) takes a page from the following watchmaker’s book: “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” The caveat is that you could drink as much of this wine, today, that you can get your hands on(good luck with that – all things considered), and still lay the balance of them down for your kids because this wine is packed; it’s got girth. But, there’s acidity that bridles that extract like a Swordfisherman hauling his prize catch! Black cherry and graphite flavors were so evident that even 15-cigars-a-day, George Burns, could have detected 'em. 97+pts
If one selected all of the wines in the Valley with this degree of singularity, they would fit in a six-pack shipper. In the current marketplace, given how few peers has MACDONALD, it is drastically undervalued. Hush-up; Hurry-up; Sign-up!
Hope y’all enjoy,
Kenney
PS I was going to try to get all of my recent impressions of my Napa trip together in one thread, but I figured – given that the release is imminent – that I’d post now.
