2016 Janzen Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard Napa Valley 750 ml

The 2016 Janzen Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet has first-class pedigree coming from all angles: It’s sourced from one of the most iconic sites in California and crafted by a Caymus alum, along with Kirk Venge (son of Nils Venge, Napa Valley’s first 100-point winemaker). 

Beautifully centered on a core of deep black fruits, cassis, black cherry, and plum, the 2016 Janzen Beckstoffer To Kalon shows layers of new leather, crushed bay leaf, baking spice, and a bit of raw cocoa in the periphery. The palate has density, richness and depth that conveys its world class terroir, and the generous mouthfeel is matched by a myriad of background notes that are just waiting to unfold in the coming years! Only nine barrels were made. 

We recently caught up with Claus Janzen, who told us the story of the Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet. When he founded his Bacio Divino label in 1993, Claus had worked for a decade at Caymus—and it was Caymus’s Chuck Wagner who helped him secure fruit by picking up the phone and calling up a grower named Andy Beckstoffer. That happened to be the same year that Beckstoffer purchased 89 acres of the To Kalon Vineyard from BV. 

At first, Claus put the To Kalon Cabernet into Bacio Divino (believe it or not, there was a time when To Kalon fruit was not always touted on the label). But one day in 2004, Claus’s phone rang. It was Andy Beckstoffer, hoping for a favor: A winemaker had backed out on ten tons of To Kalon Cabernet. Did Claus want it? 

“I was very happy with the fruit, but didn’t want to make any more Bacio Divino,” Claus told us. “And I hadn’t thought of doing a vineyard-designate. So I told him I couldn’t pay him what I’d been paying…” 

Beckstoffer told him to throw out a number. Claus did, and the deal was done. That’s when Claus—along with his winemaking partners Kirk Venge and his father Nils, the first 100-point winemaker in Napa Valley—made their inaugural vineyard-designate Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet. The Janzen label was born.

Now, Claus thinks of Andy Beckstoffer as great friend, reveres him as a businessman, and holds something that most Napa Valley proprietors would kill for: a long-term lease on what might be the most storied and valuable piece of real estate in Napa Valley. And that arrangement is responsible for Janzen’s Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet, which delivers an exquisite expression of this unique site for a fraction of what some wineries are charging. 

2016 was a flawless vintage in Napa valley, and it shows in this stellar wine. Made from 100% Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet and aged in 100% new Taransaud oak barrels, it’s a tiny-production snapshot of one of the finest plots of land in Napa Valley, as well as one of the top vintages in memory.