Walking the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard with Andy Beckstoffer and Tor Kenward (Tor Kenward Family Wines)

According to Esther Mobley of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Andy Beckstoffer is a legend in California wine ... The grape grower owns what is certainly California's most famous, and probably most expensive, vineyard: To Kalon, in the heart of Napa Valley. To Kalon is a vineyard with an aura. Winemakers speak in hushed tones about the prospect of handling its Cabernet; wines that bear the vineyard's name drown in 100-point scores.

And we were scheduled to visit this vineyard on the Tuesday of PNV week on a tour organized by Tor Kenward -- for the Wine on the Way team -- and led by the selfsame Andy Beckstoffer.

Tor had provided us with directions to the meeting point (shown on the map below) and we all mostly arrived at the same time. It was cold and spitting but we were oblivious to the elements; we were warm with anticipation.

While we awaited Andy's arrival, Tor provided us with his perspective on the vineyard:

Tor Kenward Family Wines has worked with eight different blocks since 2005 and has gravitated to the leaner soils in the western back blocks higher on the bench. We have worked with all the clones except clone 7, and have two blocks of rare Cabernet Franc. Our goal is to keep all the blocks separate and each year simply make the best wines we can from the diversity of the different clones, blocks and varieties present.

The picture below shows some of the more well-known Beckstoffer To Kalon producers and the vineyard blocks from which they source grapes.

Tor Kenward (center) warming up for Andy

And then Andy arrived. He was genial and quick with a smile. He welcomed each of us with a warm handshake and an apology for the weather. He was dressed as though he had just stepped off the farm tractor but the twinkle in his eye signaled that he might be wearing monogrammed underwear beneath the farmer gear.

Andy Beckstoffer on point

After some catching up, we headed off along the path indicated on the first vineyard map in this post and displayed in the picture below.

Heading out to traverse the vineyard

As noted by Esther Mobley, Beckstoffer To Kalon wines receive high scores and demand a premium in the marketplace. But when you speak to the winemakers, the conversation eventually comes around to a discussion of Andy's pricing mechanism for grapes sourced from this vineyard. As described by Alder Yarrow, "His contracts with customers specify three pricing scenarios for the grapes: a fixed price per ton, a fixed price per acre, and a fixed multiplier of the winery's suggested retail price per bottle, with a required minimum bottle price." According to Yarrow, the per acre price is insurance against a winemaker restricting the crop to "unusually" low levels.

That pricing mechanism reflects Andy's feeling about the primacy of this vineyard in the construction of high-quality wines. As he explained it during our walk, when he started out, he had the option of providing the fruit to a single winemaker. But, under that scenario, all of the talk would be about a great winemaker. If, however, he provides fruit to 20 winemakers, and they all make great wines, then the dialogue is about a great vineyard. And that is why he wants to speak to the winemaker prior to providing fruit to a producer. He wants to make an evaluation as to whether that winemaker can truly represent the vineyard.

Back in the 1980s, he continued, the better wines were reserve wines, the product of winemaking. Today the the best wines are expressions of terroir and he has brought every modern approach to viticulture to the vineyard in order to ensure that he is producing absolutely the best grapes. In the current partnership model, the winery is responsible for yields and harvest timing while he is responsible for all other aspects of viticulture. The vineyard is managed sustainably.

Andy mentioned that they will be initiating a replanting of the vineyard, an effort that will unfold over a 10-year period. He will be replacing the current rootstock -- 039-16 -- with a UC-Davis-developed derivative with the nomenclature GRN 1 and GRN 3. The current rootstock is too vigorous and is not as nematode-resistant as he would like. The nematode problem in the vineyard results in production levels of 1.6 tons/acre in some areas versus an average of 3.5 tons/acre overall. The replacement rootstock has lower vigor, higher nematode resistance, and a higher level of Phylloxera resistance.

The replanting plan is complex and will require some pain-sharing among the fruit purchasers. They were recently informed of the plan by mail. Andy's plan is that when a buyer's plot (or portion of a plot) is designated for replanting, his/her neighbor will be asked to share a portion of their fruit with the affected party. The upshot of this plan is that both parties will be subjected to reduced grape totals until that replanted plot becomes productive again (3 - 5 years in Andy's estimation, 5 - 7 years in mine).

By this time we had spent over an hour discussing the vineyard, pricing philosophy, grower-winemaker relationships, and the replant. It was time to begin heading back and we fell naturally into two groups. Tor and Andy went ahead of us (Tor now had quality time to bend Andy's ear) while we followed at a more measured pace giddily discussing the things that we had heard and learned. This had been a very enlightening visit.

Note: The configuration of the vineyard has been described in a previous post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard: History, configuration, and vineyard management

When my good friend Adam Chilvers of Orlando-based online retailer Wine on the Way invited me to accompany his PNV 2017 group on a tour of the Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard -- said tour to be led by Tor Kenward of Tor Kenward Family Vineyards -- I jumped at the opportunity. When Adam called me again a few weeks later and said that Andy Beckstoffer -- proprietor of the named vineyard -- would be accompanying us on the walk-through, I jumped even higher.

Having previously written on the history of the broader To Kalon Vineyard, I saw this as an opportunity to walk on the hallowed ground that had supported the production of exceedingly high-quality grapes for well over a century as well as to hear from one of the legends who had maintained and brightened the flame. Before I describe the tour, I would like to provide some background on the subject vineyard.

The figure below summarizes the history of the Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard.

Deriving from the original plots purchased by Hamilton Crabb in the latter part of the 19th Century, this specific component was first broken out when it was sold to Beaulieu Vineyard where it was given the designation Vineyard #4 and gained renown as the home of the great Georges de Latour Cabernet Sauvignons created by Andre Tchelistcheff. The vineyard was acquired by Andy Beckstoffer in 1993 where it today has pride of place in his stable of Heritage Vineyards.

The Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard, illustrated graphically in the map below, is located on the western edge of the Oakville AVA. The table below the map shows the distribution of varieties and clones in the vineyard today. The current distribution was arrived at in a replanting program that was rolled out between 1994 and 1997.

Table 1: Distribution of Varieties and Clones in Beckstoffer to Kalon Vineyard

Variety	Clone	Rootstock	Acres	Cab Sauv %	Cab Franc%
Cabernet Sauvignon	4	039-16	37.9	48
	357	039-16	31.92	31.92
	7	039-16	4.3	6
	6	039-16	4.29	5
Total			78.41	100
Cabernet Franc	1	039-16	4.63		100

According to information gleaned from Beckstoffer Vineyards, the soils are 60% Bale loam and 40% Bale clay loam. These soils provide quality drainage and adequate rooting depth as a result of loam in the first 24 inches and a gravelly loam in the subsequent 24 inches.

Vineyard management is the purview of the Beckstoffer team (the winemaker has responsibility for pick date and yields) and they have opted for the following management configuration:

Trellis System:      Vertical shoot positioning
Row Orientation:  Northwest by Southeast
Vine Spacing:        82% 6 x 7 (1037 vines/acre)
                               18% 8 x 7 (778 vines/acre)
Pruning:                Spur-Pruned to a bi-lateral cordon system

The actual vineyard tour will be discussed in a subsequent post.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

To Kalon: Chronology and genealogy of a vineyard for the ages

Oakville's standing as one of the world's premier wine-growing region has, to a large extent, been based on the presence of the To Kalon Vineyard -- the California Farm Bureau's 2011 Vineyard of the Year -- within its borders.  The vineyard soil is comprised of gravelly loam on the slopes and alluvial, loam, and clay soils on the valley floor.

The Crabb Period
Oakville graduated from a water stop on the Napa Rail Line to the steps of the wine region hall of fame with Hamilton Walker Crabb's (spelt Crabbe in Julia Flynn Siler's The House of Mondavi) 1868 purchase of 240 acres of land from E. L. Sullivan for establishment of a vineyard (According to oakvillewinegrowers.com, Crabb arrived in California in 1853 looking for gold and finally settled in San Lorenzo.). Crabb built his first winery in 1872 and by 1877 was producing 50,000 gallons of wine annually from 130 planted acres in the vineyard that he, at that time, called Hermosa Vineyards.

Crabb was considered the "first true horticulturist" to be associated with Napa wines.  He grew more than 400 grape varieties on his property (he had brought in cuttings of "noble varieties" from France) and was a leader in the research efforts to develop phylloxera-resistant rootstock.  He shared his viticultural knowledge with his peers and sold them thousands of cuttings from his vineyard.  He is reputed to have been the first to plant Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc in the valley.

In 1879 Crabb purchased a 119-acre parcel from Eliza Yount, bringing his vineyard size to 359 acres, the eventual size at the time of his death in 1899. By 1886, Crabb had adopted the name To Kalon (the good; the beautiful) for the vineyard.

Crabb's association with the 135.7-acre Davis parcel -- prior to his 1891 short-term purchase -- solidifies its consideration as a component of the historic To-Kalon Vineyard (To-Kalon Vineyard National Register Nomination):

• Crabb had planted the first vines on this property (at that time owned by his in-laws-to-be) in 1873 and had been purchasing the fruit to include in his To-Kalon wines since 1879.
• Crabb purchased the land at auction in 1891 and immediately sold it back to his daughter-in-law via a mortgage valued at one-third the price he had paid for the property just seven days earlier. In 1893 he filed a quitclaim deed for the property and Margarethe Davis (his daughter-in-law) sells the property to A. L. Williams in November of the following year.
• Prior to the 1891 purchase, Crabb regularly referred to the parcel as his own
• According to the nomination,, "Additional primary sources state that the historic To-Kalon Vineyard was contiguous and stretched from the highway back to the foothills."

Historical To-Kalon boundary
(Source: Graeme MacDonald)

Click here to learn about another interpretation as to the components of the historical vineyard.

The Churchill Period and Beyond
To Kalon was sold to a banker named E. W. Churchill subsequent to Crabb's death.  In 1911, he set aside 20 of the vineyard's acres to be used by the US Department of Agriculture for viticultural research.  The Department had established a research station in Oakville (Oakville Station) in 1903 and placed it under the stewardship of UC Davis.  Today UC Davis manages 40 acres of land at Oakville Station where experiments aimed at improving viticultural practices are conducted on Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Zinfandel vines.  The grapes grown at Oakville station are sold to wineries to be used in the production of table wines.

Wine was produced at To Kalon from the time of Crabb's death until the winery burnt to the ground in 1939.  With the winery gone, the Churchill family decided to sell the estate.  The estate itself appeared to have grown in size because 335 acres were sold to Martin Stelling ( a San Francisco steel manufacturer), thus becoming a part of the 2000-acre Stelling Estate, while 89 acres were sold to Beaulieu Vineyards and became its Beaulieu Vineyard #4, source of the legendary Georges de Latour wines made by André Tchelistcheff.  Churchill had acquired 359 acres from the Crabb estate and had set 20 acres aside for the Department of Agriculture which should have brought the To Kalon acreage to 339 acres.  Sometime during the Churchill tenure, then, an additional 85 acres were added to the original vineyard to support the sale of the reported acreage to Stelling and Beaulieu Vineyards.

To-Kalon (with Stelling extensions) at the time of

Martin Stelling's death (Source:guildsomm.com)

Martin Stelling died in an automobile accident in 1950 and his estate was held in trust for his son Douglas Stelling.

Mrs. Hedwig Detert purchased 43 acres of the To-Kalon Vineyard in 1954 from Caroline Stelling after the death of her husband. Mrs Detert wanted to buy the house in the hills above the vineyard but was told that she would have to buy some land in addition for the deal to go forward (Remember that at his death, the Stelling estate had in excess of 2000 acres of land). Mrs. Hedwig agreed and named the purchase Detert Vineyards. Shortly after the purchase, Mrs Detert turned the vineyard over to her sons and they divided it up and worked it as two separate vineyards. (Today the MacDonald Vineyard is 21 acres in size -- inclusive of 3 acres purchased from Robert Mondavi for construction of the buildings currently resident on the property -- while their second cousins farm 25 acres.).

In 1962, Ivan Schoch, Stelling's former foreman, approached the Mondavi's, then the owners of Charles Krug, about buying some of the Stelling land.  The Mondavi's jumped at the chance and bought almost 500 acres of the property, inclusive of most of the original Crabb acreage, for $1.35 million.  The property was held by the Charles Krug parent company C. Mondavi and Sons.

After his expulsion from Charles Krug, Robert Mondavi set out to establish his own winery.  This initiative began with the purchase of  11.6 acres of the original Crabb estate.  Subsequent to Mondavi's purchase, discussions were begun about converting the Stelling property into a commercial development with a small winery at its core.  Robert Mondavi signed on to be the winery operator and gained a small parcel of Stelling To Kalon property on which to build his own winery. The land development project never came to fruition but, with investment assistance from Sicks Rainier Brewing Company, Robert Mondavi Winery was able to purchase an additional 230 acres of To Kalon Vineyards from the Stelling holdings.

Charles Krug board action subsequent to Robert Mondavi's ouster sought to alter his voting rights and ownership share, prompting a Mondavi suit against his former company.  Mondavi prevailed in his suit and gained most of the To Kalon properties held by C. Mondavi and Sons as part of the settlement.

When Robert Mondavi and Baron de Rothschild agreed to the joint venture that is today's Opus One, the Baron contributed the working capital while Robert Mondavi contributed the choicest fruit from To Kalon, wines, and the sales and marketing apparatus.  In 1981 Robert Mondavi sold the To Kalon Q Block (35 acres) to the joint venture.  The viticulturist replanted this plot in 1995 with low-yield, high-density, phylloxera-resistant rootstock.  In 2008 Opus One acquired another 48 acres (K Block) of the To Kalon Vineyard from the Robert Mondavi Winery.

Source: opusonewinery.com

The Mondavi family sold 2.5 million shares in the company to the public on June 10, 1993 but retained a controlling interest post the transaction. At this time Michael and Tim were co-Managing Directors, Marcia (their sister) was a partner, and Clifford Adams was the COO. 

The company flourished until it experienced slowing business performance in the early 2000s. 

The board thought that a reorganization which sold off the high-end portfolio (Mondavi Winery, Ornellaia, and its ownership stake in Opus One), while retaining the inexpensive offerings (Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, Robert Mondavi Private Selection) would return the enterprise to profitability. Constellation countered this reorganization plan by offering to buy the entire enterprise for $970 million, an offer which the Board members seemed to ignore. Shareholder lawsuits, and a sweetened offer $1.03 billion) from Constellation, resulted in the Board considering -- and accepting -- the offer. The deal, closed on 12/22/04, resulted in the separation of the Mondavi family from the business with Robert retained as a Brand Ambassador.

Beckstoffer Vineyards acquired Beaulieu Vineyard #4 in 1993 to add to its stable of heritage vineyards -- vineyards blessed with history, great land, and great fruit.  Subsequent to the purchase, Beckstoffer replanted the vineyard (1994 - 1997) with multiple clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, modern trellising, and closer vine spacing.

Beckstoffer had, back in the 1970s, been an early proponent of the AVA system but his thinking has evolved and he is now an avid booster of vineyard-designated wines.  Beckstoffer requires that winemakers purchasing his fruit designate the vineyard of origin on the wine label.  Schrader Cellars followed this dictate and placed the To Kalon name on the label its 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon which was made from Beckstoffer-sourced grapes.  Robert Mondavi promptly filed suit against Schrader and Beckstoffer for infringement of copyright.  After a year of back and forth the suit was settled with Mondavi granting a perpetual, royalty-free trademark license to Beckstoffer allowing him to use the To Kalon Vineyard designation for grapes grown on his part of the original Crabb estate.  In 2007 Beckstoffer placed his To Kalon property under a land conservation easement that guarantees that it will remain agricultural land into perpetuity.

The vineyard plots associated with the "historic" To-Kalon vineyard is shown in the map below while the acreage distribution is illustrated in the pie chart following.

The Mondavi acreage is used as the source for Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Oakville District Cabernet Sauvignon, Fumé Blanc Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, and I Block Fumé Blanc (The Mondavi website gives the acreage as 550 acres on one page and 450 acres on another). The Mondavi To Kalon Vineyard is planted to Sauvignon Blanc (I Block; 60-year-old vines), Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petite Verdot, Syrah, and Semillon.

The Oakville Station acreage fuels the Silverado Vineyards UC Davis Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon, Cornerstone Cellars Napa Valley Red Wine, Cornerstone Cellars Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and Stepping Stone Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, among others. 

The Opus One K Block is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot while the Q Block is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.  These grapes are used to produce Opus One.  

Beckstoffer Vineyards is planted with multiple clones of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc and is the source for wines such as Alpha Omega (2007-2009), Bacio Divino Cellars (2004-2007), B Cellars (2004-2008), Carter Cellars (several labels, several vintages), Macauley Vineyard (several labels, several vintages), Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon (2001-2010), Provenance Vineyards (2003-2007), and Schrader Cellars (several labels, several vintages) among others.

© Wine -- Mise en abyme