I’m definitely one to scoff at a new $150 CA cab but this one has my attention. As sad as it sounds I was really afraid that this was going to come out at $200 plus, sadly at its price it seems reasonable for a boutique napa cab these days.
I’m a huge fan of the old mondavi wines, having had almost every vintage going back to the start, I’m excited to see how this performs. I’d love to try before I buy but sadly I’m not sure it’s possible. Since KL went under my every year CA cab purchases are montelena and Monte bello futures as well as Mt. Eden, I wonder if there might be room for another.
$150 for a cab with no track record? Thanks but NO.
As mentioned, it doesn’t have a track record as a label. The fruit however does. And the winemaker made a number of vintages before he decided he had one that was good enough to release.
It’s actually excellent wine. Not overdone like a lot of Napa wines these days and I was very pleasantly surprised. It’s ripe, but not jammy, has tannins but not harshness, most assuredly Cab, unlike many wines that are hard to tell. Based on a small sampling of his older unreleased wines, it seems like it should age well.
Having tasted it and liked it, I’d take a chance on it before I’d take a chance on something somebody else had rated 98 but I had never tasted.
I agree with the idea that you don’t take a chance on a wine with no track record, especially if you haven’t tasted it. And I’d assume the same skepticism for any wine you haven’t tasted. But I’d encourage you to taste it and decide for yourself. It was a pleasant surprise after some real disappointments like Switchback, Pride, etc. Not “old school” but what Napa can do better than anywhere and should do more of.
Alan, this is Wine Berserkers, you never need to apologize here.
I understand many will not want to pay $150 for the first vintage of a bottle of wine. Or any vintage! Totally get it. In this case, along with the other ventures I have explicitly posted about getting into early; Seven Stones, Pott, Keplinger, Fairchild, Greer, and now MacDonald, there are in all cases a combination of great vineyard (Alex and Graeme grew up in it) meets talented winemaker (Graeme worked at Opus and Colgin) meets a silly level of passion and attention to detail. The odds are so stacked in their favor, especially when there is a vineyard like this one. And, like Greer, the incredibly low production makes it a wine you will likely not see anywhere else and I kind of like that aspect of it.
When I first met Graeme two weeks ago, I was just going to walk the vineyard for an hour and get background. Seven hours and a bad sunburn later, we had spent time reviewing soil pit sample reports on almost every block of ToKalon, traveled all over the valley tasting fruit, and walked all over their vineyard…twice. It was great to meet someone who always wants to get better and learn every little thing to improve the vineyard.
For example, the 60 year old vines. They are working to get them back into form. For me, I would just rip em out and plant Clone 169 on that space, which might be the best area of the vineyard, but they are willing to live with the 0.5 tons per acre to see what they can coax from it. Gotta love that. Also, for me their 2010 beat the 2009 (many Cabs in valley do not) shows they are only going to get better as they learn what works best for them.
Here is a pic of a 60-year old vine. Notice there is maybe 5 clusters of Cab on it. Yet they won’t rip it out yet, as they hope to get it revitalized. I believe that is an olive tree trying to grow out of it. Cool!
And here are 40-year olds. These average 1.5 tons per acre.
So, what about a winery like Detert, which has pretty much the same story? Vineyard property right near where you’re talking about (I think, though AFAIK it’s not To Kalon), been in the family for decades, old vines, fruit went to Mondavi’s Reserve Cab, now some is being made into the family wine (since about 2001 or 2002). Really good stuff, but they sell it for half the price.
It’s pretty much the same story because the people behind the Detert and MacDonald wineries are related, and the two vineyards were once a single vineyard owned by their great-grandfather.
Not sure the two vineyards can be compared since one is cabernet sauvignon and the other is primarily cabernet franc.
Yep, Detert is right in front of MacDonald. They planted Franc and MacDonald planted Cab. There is old vine Franc in Detert, although they are seeing the writing on the wall and will probably replant the lowest producing vines to Cab soon enough. The soils are probably very similar, and the potential, vast. It’s just a lot harder to sell Franc than Cab. Actually, the idea of making a 60% Cab from MacDonald/ 40% Franc from Detert from old vines sounds pretty rad.
I believe that the original Detert vineyard (which today comprises the Detert and MacDonald/Horton vineyards) was planted by its prior owner, Martin Stelling. I know the cab franc was planted in 1949, not sure about the cab.
Does the MacDonald cab actually call the vineyard MacDonald? It was originally named after their grandmother, Gabrielle (Detert) Horton, and was known as Horton for decades…
Well, I’ve been buying their wine, both Cab and Franc, since 2002 (though none in the past couple of vintages). It gets zero interest from anyone here, I guess because they are not charging enough
Oooh - are you a skeptic or what? The analogy I see is a small, highly regarded GC Vineyard in Burgundy that changes winemakers (to one highly respected). This does happen, you know. How far, in your estimation, would the price drop? Or do you believe that the concept of “site” only is valid in France?
I love their ethic regarding vineyard preservation and I love the heritage of that vineyard. I like what I’ve heard from people who have tasted it.
You (and your skeptical mind) may get an opportunty to taste this one day, my friend!
For those who care I think this will sell out fast. 90 cases is not much wine to sell and there is considerable interest from Doug’s article and a few threads on this and the other Board (which by the way is still very active at times) plus the general buzz.
Roy did not mention that in addition to Opus One, Colgin & Aubert Graeme was the assistant winemaker at Scholium and is known to many despite his young age.
This isn’t a comment about MacDonald, about which I have no particular opinion, but I was saying in another thread that the first time I had an Arcadian Pisoni Vineyard pinot, I was stunned by how radically different it was than other pinots made by good quality producers from the exact same vineyard. Some combination of the decision when to pick and then what happens in the winery resulted in this wine being almost the polar opposite of other pinots from neighboring rows of the vineyard.
I don’t know how applicable that is to this vineyard, this variety or this winery, but that experience just showed me at least one example of how big of a difference the producer can make. I agree that the producer can’t overcome a lousy vineyard, and that (except in the most extreme case) a great vineyard is going to produce great or at least good wines, but I think there can be quite a stylistic difference with different producers from the same vineyard. Pruning, cropping, when to pick, how much oak, what kind of oak, extended maceration, blending, etc. etc.
MacDonald is one of those projects that makes what I do so satisfying, that is getting a chance to meet the people, learn about the property history and taste the wine very early. I put the discovery of MacDonald in the same category as Scarecrow and VHR when they were unknowns. What these three have in common is their ties to the land and commitment to quality. As mentioned earlier, 90 cases of anything will go fast and I appreciate that the price may cause some to seek wine elsewhere, yet I also know eventually bigger publications will write about them and the wine will disappear. It may seem like things happen quickly, but it took the better part of a year from the time I first met Graeme and Alex and learned about the wine before I tasted it in February, and eight months later, here we are. Believe me, it is as real as it gets. I thought I may have posted my notes somewhere here earlier in the year, but will try to get them up tonight if people are interested in reading about it.
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