A review of the farming philosophies and viticultural practices of Collective To Kalon (Oakville AVA, Napa)

I have been casting around for an obvious way to reference the land that is the combination of the historic To Kalon vineyard and the Stelling Extension, a task made more difficult in light of a judge’s ruling reserving the use of the words To Kalon and To Kalon Vineyard to Constellation Brands. I cannot use Historic To Kalon because it is not expansive enough and Historic To Kalon + Stelling Extension is too bulky. I have instead settled on the term Collective To Kalon, a term which preserves the singularity of the land while acknowledging the fact that a number of entities ply their trade on that hallowed ground. 

As I mentioned in my most recent post, a Decanter article on To Kalon Vineyard achieving organic certification alerted me to the fact that I had not discussed farming practices at Collective To Kalon. I correct that oversight in this post.

To Kalon Vineyard

The Constellation Brands portion of Collective To Kalon has been farmed sustainably for a number of years under the Napa Green certification regime. The vineyard map is reproduced below.

According to the previously referenced Decanter article, Constellation has been hard at work over the past three years readying the To Kalon Vineyard for organic certification. Constellation currently manages 497 acres of the Collective and, of this, a total of 331 acres have attained organic certification (CCOF). Younger vines and buffer blocks remain uncertified at this time. The first vintage of organic fruit will come with the 2023 harvest.

As a part of its certification pursuit, Constellation purchased six Monarch tractors to deploy in its vineyards. The Monarch is the "world's first fully electric, driver-optional smart tractor," offering electrification, automation, and data analysis on a single platform thus allowing farmers to "practice sustainable farming while increasing efficiency and maximizing profitability ..."(Donna Loughlin, impgr.com).

Macdonald Vineyard

Macdonald Vineyard is organic- (CCOF) certified. Graeme Macdonald is responsible for vineyard management and winemaking. He subscribes to what he calls natural farming, a requirement, he says, for getting natural flavors out of the grapes:

• Integration of plants into the environment
• Minimal tractor use to minimize compaction
• No fertilizers -- planting of Fava beans between rows
• No roundup
• Minimal canopy management (only one trellised block in the vineyard)
• Creation of their own compost on site.

The vineyard is oriented NE - SW which allows fuller access to the morning sun and limited access to the searing afternoon sun. Vines are 20-, 40-, and 60-years old with the youngest vines California-sprawl-trained and the oldest head-trained. Graeme is able to get away with minimal canopy management because, he says, the California sprawl creates its own balance. The trellised vines are planted at 1089 vines/acre while the rest of the vineyard is planted to 565 vines/acre.

The vines are all Cabernet Sauvignon: Clone 4 on 110R rootstocks for the younger vines and St. George for the older vines. The trellised vines are irrigated once or twice per growing season while the older vines are dry-farmed. Yields on the vineyard are between 1.5 and 2 tons per acre. Damaged vines are replaced using massal selection of the To-Kalon clone.

Beckstoffer to Kalon

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 S. %	Cab Fr%
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
CS 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

In the current partnership model, the winery is responsible for yields and harvest timing while Beckstoffer is responsible for all other aspects of viticulture. The vineyard is managed sustainably. The overall approach to vineyard management in the Beckstoffer sphere of influence is illustrated in the chart below.

Compiled from screen grab from beckstoffer.com

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. 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).

Opus One

The estate currently owns and operates four vineyards, totaling 169 acres (68.4 ha), in the AVA.  The first acquisition was the Q Block (35 acres (14.2 ha)) of the famed To Kalon Vineyard from the Robert Mondavi Winery in 1981. This was followed by the acquisition of the 50-acre (20.2-ha) River Parcel in 1983, the Ballestra Vineyard (49 acres (19.8 ha)) in 1984, and the To Kalon K Block (48 acre (18.4 ha)) in 2008.  The To Kalon pieces of the estate are shown to the left of Highway 29 in the map below.

Source: Opusonewinery.com

In 1995 the Q Block was replanted with low-yield, high-density, phylloxera-resistant rootstock.  The density of the re-plantings was five to six times higher than is normal for Napa but was pursued in order to produce smaller berries with resultant higher skin-to-juice-ratio which, in turn, would translate into more intense flavors and aromas. Overall vine density ranges between 500 and 2400 vines per acre.  Vines are spur-pruned with new plantings going to Guyot.

Opus One has been operating under the Napa Land Certification for a while but has gained the new Napa Green Certification in 2022. The Napa Green Certification extends beyond the Napa Land constructs to incorporate a number of Regenerative farming practices to include climate action, regenerative farming, and social equity.

Source: Opus One

According to Angela Muscarella, Production Manager, the transition to the new regime has been "very smooth."The estate has been experimenting with biochar since 2015 and that has been a great help in adjusting to the standards. They had their first successful biochar-producing burn in 2018 and in 2020 used an air burner which "left them with an essentially smoke-free burn."

Detert Family Vineyards

This estate is located on the eastern benchland of the Mayacamas Mountains and is divided into east, west, and south blocks.

The estate is farmed conventionally but is practicing organic and sustainable techniques.

UC Davis

The UC Davis Oakridge Station is comprised of two vineyards: South Station and Old Federal Vineyard.  A few Napa brands have access to the fruit from the latter.

UC Davis plots indicated with black ovals

Vineyard management practices at these vineyards will not be consistent due to the experimental nature ot its raison d'etre.

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The foregoing is summarized in the chart below.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Opus One: Conception and execution of the highest order

Opus One is an Oakville-based winery joint venture that grew out of Baron Philippe de Rothschild's (at that time the owner of Mouton-Rothschild) desire to partner with an American producer to make a distinctly American wine.  I have visited the winery twice in a little over a year -- once as a member of the UC Davis Wine Law Conference team that visited the facility on June 6th, 2010 and, secondly, on a personal guided tour organized by @sdematei and led by Jim Nicolette, Guest Relations Coordinator -- and this post presents my understanding of the winery operations based on onsite discussions as well as material gleaned from secondary sources.

Based on the recommendation of his friend Harry Serlis, Robert Mondavi was the only producer who was considered by the Baron as a potential joint-venture partner (Julia Flynn Siler, The House of Mondavi, Penguin 2007).  The Baron invited Robert Mondavi to meet at Mouton-Rothschild and in the course of the visit (1978) proposed a joint venture based on equal footing (a surprising proposal to Mondavi given the size and prestige of Mouton).  The agreement coming out of the meeting was for the formation of a fifty-fifty joint venture which would produce a single red wine with a proprietary name (Siler 2007).  Robert Mondavi would provide the grapes and make the wine for the joint venture until it was able to meet its own needs and a search would be initiated to identify and procure property to house its operations.

The joint venture released its 1979 and 1980 vintages simultaneously in 1984 under the winemaking stewardship of Timothy Mondavi and Lucien Sionneau, the Mouton winemaker.  The product introduced on the market represented a compromise between Sionneau's preference for a more elegant offering and Mondavi's hankering for a California-style red wine (Siler 2007).

The climate and soils of Oakville, Opus One's home AVA, has been described in a previous post.  The estate currently owns and operates four vineyards, totaling 169 acres (68.4 ha), in the AVA.  The first acquisition was the Q Block (35 acres (14.2 ha)) of the famed To Kalon Vineyard from the Robert Mondavi Winery in 1981.


This was followed by the acquisition of the 50-acre (20.2-ha) River Parcel in 1983, the Ballestra Vineyard (49 acres (19.8 ha)) in 1984, and the To Kalon K Block (48 acre (18.4 ha)) in 2008.  In 1995 the Q Block was replanted with low-yield, high-density, phylloxera-resistant rootstock.  The density of the re-plantings was five to six times higher than is normal for Napa but was pursued in order to produce smaller berries with resultant higher skin-to-juice-ratio which, in turn, would translate into more intense flavors and aromas. Overall vine density ranges between 500 and 2400 vines per acre.  Vines are spur-pruned with new plantings going to Guyot.

Source: Opusonewinery.com

The goal of Opus One is the production of an extraordinay wine and the person leading that charge today is the Winemaker and Viticulturist Michael Silacci.  Mike has a Masters degree in Viticulture from UC Davis and Undergraduate degrees in Enology from UC Davis and the University of Bordeaux.  Mike spent 6 years as the winemaker at Stags Leap Wine Cellars and 1 year as the winemaker at King Estates in Oregon but is especially mindful of the years (6) at Beaulieu Estates where he got to work alongside the legendary Andre Tchelistcheff.  Tchelistcheff had come back to Beaulieu Vineyards as a consultant and Mike worked alongside him for approximately 3 years and came out of that process a Tchelistcheff disciple.

Mike came to Opus One in 2001 and put the vineyard team together, drawing extensively from Mondavi personnel. Mike sought out committed vineyard workers who were willing to take on responsibility and ownership.  In 2004 he placed the cellar workers into teams and gave each team four barrels of wine (value approximately $250,000) with the goal of having "their" wines included in the Opus blend.  According to JIm Nicolette, since that initial assignment, only one team has missed the blend.

During my initial trip to Opus I was mesmerized by the corporate strategic management skills exhibited by Mike.  These are not the type of skills that you encounter in a winery on a daily basis.  First, he was very strategic in his thinking and every action that was undertaken was part of a larger plan.  He related the story of how he eventually got the executives in France to commit the financial resources to replanting the vineyards and it was brilliant.  Second, his management style was highly motivational.  Rather than pulling folks along, he gave them a sense of shared ownership and responsibility and a "we all win together" attitude.  He spoke very highly of his staff and their successes to the UC Davis team where a lot of winemakers would have used the opportunity to laud their own accomplishments.  And that love is returned.  A fair amount of the time that I spent with Jim was taken up with favorable stories about Mike's effect on and in the workplace.  According to Jim, Mike's motivational management style has dramatically changed the culture at Opus One.

Harvesting of the grape berries are done by hand by teams working between 3:30 and 10:00 am.  The berries are deposited into small picking boxes for transport to the winery where they are hand-sorted before being placed in the destemmer.  The berries are gravity-flowed from the destemmers to stainless steel fermenting tanks on the floor below.  Each tank is dedicated to a single lot and is only used once during harvest.  The berries undergo a warm maceration at the conclusion of which the tanks are raised and the free-run juice is gravity-fed into new French oak barrels.  The remaining solid material is placed into basket presses and the resulting juice is itself placed into oak barrels for aging.

The wine is kept in oak casks for 18 months during which time it is racked and topped-up as needed.  In turbid years the wine is subjected to egg-white fining. The final blend is determined by a tasting team comprised of the winemaker, two assistant winemakers, and a contingent from Mouton-Rothschild.  The blend is generally 85% Cabernet Sauvignon with the remainder being some mix of the other Bordeaux varietals.  A general practice is to co-ferment the best Cabernet Sauvignon with Petit Verdot.

The wines are bottled after the 18-month residence in cask and spend an additional 18 months in bottle before public release.

Opus One bottles its vintage Bordeaux blend for worldwide distribution and a non-vintage second wine -- Overture -- which is only avaiilable for purchse at the winery or on the winery's website.  The flagship wine is generally concentrated with apparent black fruit and silky tannins but ages well, as demonstrated in a recent Masters of Wine tasting in London where Mike's favorite vintages were showcased.  The wines are generally favorably received by the critic-class and have developed a faithful following worldwide.

In closing I should note that, with Constellation's purchase of the Robert Mondavi Winery, the joint partners in the endeavor are now Constellation Brands and the Baron Philippe de Rothschild organization.


©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Going High-Tech to Produce Better Wines

We have all heard of the use of technology to fine-tune, tweak, or outright modify a wine through the use of reverse osmosis, spin cone columns, and the like to reduce the alcohol level in a finished wine, but that high tech approach is now being used in the vineyard and during the “crush” portion of the winemaking process, hopefully to reduce the need to finagle with the finished wine.

Many wineries currently employ a sorting line, where leaves, loose stems, and miscellaneous debris are removed from the picked grapes before the grapes enter the crusher, either on an actual table or on a conveyor system that carries the clusters from the bins to the crusher.

Beginning with the 2007 vintage, Dominus Winery in the Napa Valley has been using an “air knife” device called Mistral, which acts to create a sharp breeze across the sorting line to separate any dried berries or plant material from the clusters after they have passed through the de-stemmer.

Going even further, and emphasizing Dominus’ “hands-off” approach once the grapes arrive at the winery, they began utilizing an optical sorting system in 2009. The device is a camera-based, high-speed optical sorter that analyzes individual grapes by size, shape, surface texture (smooth versus raisined), and color. This system, in theory, allows the winery to cull any and all berries or foreign material that would not be considered perfect for making wine to Dominus’ high standards. The system, made by the Swiss Corporation Bucher Vaslin Industries, allows the winery to define the parameters of what the system will accept in terms of whole berries versus crushed berries, acceptable color range, and any stems, leaves or debris that may have made it through the de-stemming process.

Electronic noses (or eNoses) are being used to assess grape maturity based on the volatile aromas (and their precursor compounds) given off by the berries. Researchers at Virginia Tech and elsewhere have found that the eNose evaluation of these volatile compounds provided more distinct and accurate predictive data than the typical physical/chemical parameters that are evaluated on the lab bench. Add to that the fact that the eNoses are extremely sensitive, being able to detect chemical scents occurring in concentrations as low as 10 to 6000 nanograms / kilogram of fruit. That is the equivalent of sensing 8 berries in a million tons of fruit.

Finally, sensors created by the Precision Viticulture International LLC (Viticision) are providing vineyard managers and winemakers with un-precedented access to data collected in the vineyard. These sensors, which are slightly smaller than a dime, can collect data on soil temperature, sun exposure, and ripening within individual clusters in the vineyard. The sensors have been in use at Opus One for the past two vintages.

The data collected are used to decide which rows to harvest first, and which need to ripen further. The data are also used to map the trajectory of the sun over the rows in the vineyard, providing data for canopy management and thereby optimizing color and flavor development while preventing sunburn. The data may also be used to modify trellis design to improve the overall quality of the fruit produced in the vineyard.