2012 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve To Kalon Vineyard Oakville 750 ml

2012 Robert Mondavi To Kalon Vineyard Reserve: H.W. Crabb’s Oakville Gold Rush

Henry Walker Crabb, also known as Hiram Walker Crabb, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, on the first day of January 1828. Twenty-five years later, H.W. moved west and settled in California.

Most easterners who moved west in the 1850s did so in search for gold. But, as it turned out, Crabb was far more interested in growing grapes. In 1865, he moved to Napa and three years later purchased land outside of Oakville, close to the Napa River. Initially, H.W. grew table grapes but, in 1872, he planted a vineyard and built a winery. He named his property “To-Kalon” — Greek for “the highest beauty.”

Crabb was wildly inventive and curious. In the years that followed, he planted 400 different varieties on his Oakville property, hoping to determine which were best suited to gravelly, sandy soils. While To-Kalon Zinfandel won an award at the San Francisco Midwinter Fair of 1894 and the gold medal at the Alaska-Yukon Exposition of 1909, over time it became evident that To-Kalon was particularly well-suited to growing Bordeaux varieties, and most specifically Cabernet Sauvignon.

H.W. Crabb suffered a stroke and died in 1899. His estate was owned by the E.W. Churchill family until 1944, when it was bought by Martin Stelling. Eventually, the property dropped into the hands of an equally brilliant winegrowing pioneer — his name was Robert Mondavi.

For years, the crowning achievement of Robert Mondavi Winery has been the To Kalon Vineyard Reserve, drawn almost entirely from the portion of To-Kalon originally planted by Mr. Crabb. Deep, dark, powerfully built yet sleekly contoured, Mondavi To Kalon is, as Wine Spectator has written, a classic example of the “iron fist in velvet glove.”

The superb 2012 vintage in Oakville gave birth to a magnificent To Kalon Reserve, quite possibly the most extraordinary wine ever produced by this historic winery from this even more historic vineyard.

The 2012 Robert Mondavi To Kalon Vineyard Reserve is opaque purple in color. Ultra-rich notes of blackberry, black currant, graphite, and licorice, laced with new-wood cedar. Explosive on the attack, massively concentrated yet velour-like in texture, packed with crushed-black-fruit preserves, splashed with crème de cassis, this is Cabernet of great richness and exquisite purity, finishing with perfectly resolved if sturdy tannins that argue gracefully for a 20- to 25-year rest in the coolest of cellars.

95 points from Wine Spectator. 240 bottles have been set aside for the WineAccess membership. Offered at $144/bottle, shipping included on 2.