History
Crabb bought 240 acres at Highway 29 and Walnut Drive in 1868, planted from 1872 under the name Hermosa Vineyards, and rechristened the vineyard To Kalon as it became one of nineteenth-century California's most celebrated. After his death in 1899 the land passed at auction to E.S. Churchill and through his widow across Prohibition; the winery burned in 1939, and Martin Stelling reassembled 337 acres in 1943, selling ninety to Beaulieu, the BV4 ranch behind Tchelistcheff's Georges de Latour Reserve. Robert Mondavi built his 1966 winery on To Kalon land and made the vineyard his flagship; Opus One took its Q Block in 1980 and K Block in 2008; Beckstoffer bought the BV4 acres in 1993; and the MacDonald family has farmed its piece since 1954. The name has spawned trademark battles between Constellation, Beckstoffer and others that continue to shape who may print To Kalon on a label.
The Site
The great benchland fan at Oakville's western edge, deep gravelly loams running from the highway into the Mayacamas foothills, the reference ground for Napa Cabernet.
Vines and Blocks
Cabernet Sauvignon rules the bench, with Cabernet Franc, Merlot and the Sauvignon Blanc of Mondavi's I Block, among the oldest in America, under its various owners' regimes.
The Wines
Mondavi's To Kalon Reserve Cabernet and Fume Blanc, Opus One, the Beckstoffer designate roster and MACDONALD all draw from the same historic fan: the widest constellation of great wines from any single vineyard name in the country.