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Schrader Cellars
Schrader Cellars is one of Napa’s cult names. It focuses on pairing specific clones with the perfect site to produce the ultimate expression of Napa Cabernet. The results regularly receive the very highest scores from critics, with 19 100-point scores from the Wine Advocate to date.
The results regularly receive the very highest scores from critics, with 19 100-point scores from the Wine Advocate to date.
The winery was started by Fred Schrader. Originally an antiques dealer, he fell for Napa’s charms attending the Napa Valley Wine Auction in 1988. He established a winery with his then-wife Ann Colgin (now of Colgin Cellars), setting out to make world-class Cabernet Sauvignon. In 2000 he tasted a barrel sample of Cabernet from the Beckstoffer To Kalon vineyard in Oakville: he knew he had found something special, and started working to secure grapes from this lauded site.
The same year he met Thomas Rivers Brown, a young enthusiastic winemaker working in the local wine shop. He’d never made Cabernet before, but Fred Schrader trusted his instincts and hired him anyway. It wasn’t a decision he’d regret. The 2002 vintage of Old Sparky – a blend of the finest Cabernet barrels in the Schrader cellar – was the first of their wines to receive 100 points from Wine Advocate, with many more perfect scores following.
Schrader doesn’t own any vineyards, but works with some of the most prestigious sites in the valley – including Beckstoffer To Kalon, Georges III, Dr Crane and Las Piedras. Stylistically, the wines are immense, opulent and plushly textured, with purity of fruit and fine silky tannins, underpinned by an elegant power. With a total production of between 2,500 to 4,000 cases each year, there is a huge queue to join the Schrader mailing list and never enough of the wines to go around.
The winery was sold to Constellation Brands in 2017, although nothing has changed in terms of the day-to-day management of the winery – with Schrader and Rivers Brown still at the helm.
Schrader works with some of Napa’s finest and oldest vineyards. It has parcels in To Kalon, Georges III and Las Piedras. In particular Beckstoffer To Kalon – planted in 1868 – is undoubtedly considered a “Grand Cru” of the region, producing ripe, elegant and powerful wines.
Schrader works specifically with three clones of Caberenet. Clone 4 produces wine of immense structure, with volume and depth. Clone 6 forms looser bunches that tend to ripen more, producing richly fruited wines. Clone 337 is the most elegant of the three, while still opulent in style.
Work in the vineyard is focused on maximum ripeness, with green harvesting and leaf stripping in the summer to reduce yield and open the canopy to the Napa sunshine. Once the fruit is perfectly ripe, it’s harvested in the cool of night or early morning.
Thomas Rivers Brown started his winemaking career at Turley, but it was while working in a local wine shop that he met Fred Schrader.
Schrader trusted his gut and hired him, despite Rivers Brown’s lack of experience. Although he’d never made Cabernet before, Rivers Brown was soon making wines that earned perfect scores from the world’s foremost wine critics.
“No holds barred” is the style at Schrader: intense wines that are plush and structured Napa Cabs. To achieve this style, the fruit is picked at maximum ripeness, then sorted both at bunch and berry level. The fruit is de-stemmed and undergoes a cold soak to extract colour and flavour. The wines are fermented in tank and aged in new French oak.
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