California Wine, Napa Valley

About Schrader Vineyard Wine

"An Evening at the Clubhouse with Fred Schrader"

Reprinted from John Kapon’s. Vintage Tastings, Vol. 1, Fall 2002

Fred treated us to three barrel samples of different blocks of vineyards for the 2001 Schrader(s) . . . this was my first experience with the heralded vintage and, to sum it up best—BUY!

These wines are incredible. Now I am the first one to say that I believe that barrel samples can be misleading, so I look forward to re-evaluating these out of the bottle . . . damn, they sure do taste good out of the barrel now, don’t they!

Fred was not sure if he was going to bottle these separately now or not, so these might not be releases as they were tasted tonight. I must also give kudos here to the very talented Thomas Brown, Fred’s winemaker, formerly of Turley Wine Cellars.

Schrader Winery Cabernet Sauvignon #4

More alcohol and spice in the nose . . . floral . . . again super but different-more spicy in a woodsy/jasmine way like a forest full of "blank"—I cannot read the keyword here in my notes—oh, well! Less forward than the "337" but it hit me in my "W-Spot"—like a G-Spot for the palate, still similar otherwise to the "337".

Schrader Winery "RBS" Cabernet Sauvignon, #337

Sexy nose - ripe and aromatic lavender, blueberry and banana...incredible sweetness AND length AND balance AND flavor - awesome! Intense, deep and brooding...