History
Crabb bought 240 acres at Highway 29 and Walnut Drive in 1868 and named his planting To Kalon, Greek for the highest beauty. After his death in 1899 the land passed through the Churchills and Martin Stelling, who sold ninety acres to Beaulieu, the BV4 ranch that fed Andre Tchelistcheff's Georges de Latour Reserve. Beckstoffer acquired those 89 acres in 1993, replanted from 1994 with first usable fruit in 1997, and priced the grapes as a multiple of bottle price, first 100 times, later 175, a formula that put grower names on cult labels valley-wide. A 2007 conservation easement bars non-agricultural development forever.
The Site
Eighty-nine gross acres, 83 planted, on the Oakville bench west of Highway 29, the deep gravelly benchland that made To Kalon's name.
Vines and Blocks
Cabernet Sauvignon in clones 337, 4 and 6 with Cabernet Franc, farmed as designated blocks per producer.
The Wines
The designate roster is the cult era in miniature: Schrader's RBS, CCS and magnum-only Old Sparky, TOR's 337-based Kenward, Paul Hobbs since 1999, Realm, Alpha Omega, Myriad and Carter's five-bottling program, dark, layered Oakville Cabernet under the valley's most famous grower name.