“Who is this dude?” reverberated in his mind as the glow from the candles highlighted the pristine, white tablecloth with stunning table settings made from fine china and polished silverware displayed in perfection on top of it. A distinguished gentleman, dressed in an elegant suit, sat at this splendid table with—no, it couldn’t be, yes it was—Katie Couric. It was too much for any young man to handle, especially one who was there to escort his girlfriend to a capital campaign kickoff formal dinner, as she had just become a Rhodes Scholar and was the keynote speaker.
Those words, “Who is this dude?” weren’t spoken by any of the other dining companions, as they were words that echoed in his own head as he felt extremely overwhelmed by the prospect of embarrassing himself in front of the president of his university, the University of Virginia, and the acclaimed journalist Katie Couric. But the night couldn’t have been more fun as it was excellent company, and the young man’s passion for wine had been taken notice of by the others. It just so happened that the woman who set up the event told this young man that she had a friend in Napa and that he should go out there since he was obviously really into wine. “Oh yeah, I’ll pack up my car and drive from Virginia to Napa,” he said to himself with a chuckle, and, to his own surprise, he was doing just that one week later.
This is how it all began with Thomas Rivers Brown, a man from Sumter, South Carolina—a place not known for its love of wine, let alone winemakers—who became one of the most decorated winemakers in the world, with 41 perfect 100-point scores. Even though he wasn’t afraid of hard work, he still couldn’t see himself as a winemaker, initially, as he thought one had to be born into a family of winemakers, or at least, be born and raised in a winemaking region.
Humility And Hard Work
Yet, in the mid-1990s, Thomas wound up at Turley, a tiny wine producer at the time, where he found only a team of three in the winery, but it had a great reputation even back then, and it would place him on the path to becoming a winemaker. The head winemaker had gone to college in Virginia, and his degree was in something other than wine, as was Thomas’s, and so, he really liked hiring someone where this was a passion, a passion so great that it overcame being raised in an area where there was little interest in wine. Looking back, he laughs at himself as he felt that, as a young man, it was taking forever for him to find his way as a winemaker in Napa. Yet, being older and wiser now, after just completing his 30th harvest, he has perspective and can’t believe how quickly things happened for him.
By 2000, he was working for Schrader Cellars and making Cabernet Sauvignon from one of the most iconic vineyards, To Kalon, and he received his first 100-point perfect score in 2002. Since Thomas had no entitled attitude about how wine should be made, as he was more about focusing on the vineyards and expressing their qualities without having to put his own personal stamp on it, he has really become the master of expressing a strong sense of place. That transparency has wowed many wine critics.
The Legend
Photo Credit: Schrader Cellars
Initially, Schrader Cellars sourced from the Beckstoffer portion of To Kalon Vineyard, with Beckstoffer being one of the most prestigious grape growers in Napa (the rest of the vineyard belonged to Robert Mondavi). Yet today, Schrader Cellars sources from various sections of Mondavi’s large plot and produces different bottlings that either focus on certain Cabernet Sauvignon clones in To Kalon or on particular plots, as there are distinct variations within the vineyard itself. This was made possible because in 2004, just four years before he passed away at the age of 94, Mondavi sold his winery and all its vineyard holdings to Constellation Brands, a large company with an impressive wine portfolio. In 2017, Fred Schrader sold Schrader Cellars, which had become a “cult” Napa Valley winery prized for its outstanding, limited-production Cabernet Sauvignon wines, to Constellation. Hence, they became part of the same family.
Robert Mondavi came from a winemaking family but because he had a strong vision that wasn’t in line with theirs, he left and went off on his own—and Napa Valley was all the better for it. So it makes sense that he understood that each of his children needed to live their own dreams, just as he did all those decades ago, and that the best way to make that happen was to sell his family winery to Constellation so that each of his kids could carve out their own legacy.
Photo Credit: Schrader Cellars
And what a legacy it is, as Robert Mondavi had the fortitude to go around the country when Napa Valley wines were not taken seriously and state unequivocally that Napa made the greatest wines in the world. There were many jeers and snide comments; it was far from easy, and it is still remarkable to this day that it didn’t demoralize him —if anything, it strengthened his resolve, and he achieved the impossible. He was able to get from under the shadow of European countries, such as France, which had dominated the fine wine world for over a century. And not only did his eventual success of bringing prestige to Napa Valley inspire the wine producers there to put more investment into their vineyards and wineries but it became a rallying cry to the rest of the world that an area isn’t necessarily condemned to an endless sentence of being labeled as mediocre if it has the potential for greatness.
To Kalon Vineyard
Photo Credit: Schrader Cellars
The To Kalon Vineyard became part of that achievement as it is now one of the most famous vineyards in the world. Today, Schrader Cellars, under the leadership of Thomas Rivers Brown, produces a range of small production bottlings from this auspicious site, such as their “TKS” bottling, which stand for To Kalon South, as it comes from the southern blocks that are known for their alluvial dominant soils which are made up of gravel, sand and silt from the Mayacamas Mountains, creating good drainage that contributes to producing elegant Cabernet Sauvignon. These portions are near another prestigious vineyard called Martha’s Vineyard.
Another bottling is the “Heritage Clone,” as it comes from strictly one type of a Cabernet Sauvignon clone (located within one block of To Kalon) that is called Clone 31, a.k.a. Heritage, a clone that Robert Mondavi isolated from one plant for its extraordinary concentration, and then Mondavi allowed this clone to be placed on the open market so anyone could use it. It has tiny berries that are a key marker of this clone and it is only for those who want to make top-quality wines as it has extremely low yields. There is the “Monastery Block” bottling, which comes from a different neighborhood than the “TKS,” which is against a hill with a different aspect. Even though the soil is an alluvial fan like the “TKS,” there is much less topsoil, so it has a more substantial influence on the vines. And that is just a couple of the bottlings that Schrader produces from this outstanding vineyard.
An exciting new development with their “Monastery Block” is that they are replanting sections, allowing Schrader Cellars to source from a couple of phenomenal blocks, elevating a wine that was already great to out-of-this-world spectacular status.
Thomas’s impressive To Kalon journey started with a lunch 25 years ago, when he belonged to a tasting group, and Fred Schrader, who was just as larger-than-life as Mondavi was, said to him out of the blue, “Hey, how about lunch?” And it seemed weird to Thomas, as he was just a young man trying to make his way in the wine world, while Fred was a well-established wine producer, but he thought it would be fun and didn’t think any more about it. But when he showed up, there was Fred with this great bottle of wine on the table, the type of wine that someone pulls out when they want to impress a high-level executive, and here Fred was bringing it to impress a 20-something newbie in Napa. Fred had a vision for a more elegant, more complex Cabernet Sauvignon, and at first, he simply phrased it to Thomas as, “How about you make a little bit of Cab for me.” Thomas had never made Cab and he had no idea what he was getting himself into at that point in his life. Still, Fred had such an inspiring, vivid dream, with an anything-is-possible attitude, that it lifted a 20-something Thomas into another realm of possibilities and made him believe that he could be part of bringing Napa Cab to the next level. And here he is today, 41 perfect 100-point scores later.
Just because there is potential for greatness doesn’t mean success is guaranteed, as many other contingencies have to fall into place. One of those critical contingencies is having the right people at the right time in history, such as a Mondavi or a Schrader. If one could reenact the history of Napa Valley again without those men, it would undoubtedly be a very different place, with very different journeys for Thomas and other winemakers like him. Napa represents a dream that should never have come to fruition, because everything was against it. Yet there were people such as Mondavi and Schrader who were not afraid to stand at the edge of a precipice and not shrink back from the bottomless abyss that was trying to beat down their audacity with the fear of the unknown. That unknown was the impossible that these men made possible, and that is what one is experiencing when they drink from a glass of Schrader’s To Kalon bottlings.
The 2023 Napa Valley vintage had as near-perfect conditions as one can hope, and it is considered an exceptional vintage, with many winemakers calling it a potential “vintage of a lifetime.”
2023 Schrader “TKS” To Kalon Vineyard, Oakville, Napa Valley, California: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Stunning inky color with an intriguing bouquet of graphite, anise seed, violets, fresh thyme and gravel, with a succulent palate of dense purple fruit such as plum tart, and a prodigious finish that is long, complex and delicious—wow!
2023 Schrader “Monastery Block” To Kalon Vineyard, Oakville, Napa Valley, California: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Vivacious nose of wildflowers, cigar box and chalky minerality with rich black cherry flavors that has an underlying note of wet river stones with juicy cassis and a nimble energy on the palate with open-knitted tannins that are expansive in the mouth; a wine that gives the drinker a feeling of electric enthusiasm with each sip!
2023 Schrader “Heritage Clone” To Kalon Vineyard, Oakville, Napa Valley, California: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, specifically Clone 31 a.k.a. Heritage Clone. Mysteriously alluring with multilayered depth and a brooding dark quality that is like the abyss that Mondavi and Schrader were not afraid to take on as there is an endless layering of blackberries, black truffles and black sesame seeds with an intense minerality suggestive of pulverized rocks with a plush body of blueberry coulis flavors balanced by savory notes of tobacco leaf with lots of finely sculpted tannins that are seamlessly integrated into the wine with a long, concentrated finish that goes on and on; a wine that places one in a grounded, meditative bliss.
