05/03/2026
Thanks to Deacon Reid for sharing with us! We are so glad you took the time to share your love letter to Janzen To Kalon!
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From my post in Napa Valley Wine Group... Feel free to repost if you think worthy of some thoughts..
2023 Janzen To Kalon
(From Bacio Davino Cellars)
Let me preface this by saying I've never been the biggest To Kalon fan - NOT that I don't recognize it's excellence as one of the finest vineyards in the entire world...but maybe I push back against the idea that some may forward that it has no rival in Napa as the "Crown Jewel" of Cabernet Vineyards.
Now - some of this is my Personal - very subjective preference to a style of Cab that generally comes from Mountain fruit that can be either Western facing or the more reserved structured Eastern Facing Slopes (reserved in the sense of less obvious ripe plush fruit, more structured tannins that take time to evolve.. and of course a little bit more beautiful hints of green thrown in). From the Beckstoffer portfolio I'll go with Dr Crane at nearly the same crazy $60 k a ton for good blocks .... And maybe even the new kid on the elite block as Bourne is now commanding the same price now -or was.. I can't see how those prices don't plummet a little this year.
Anyhoo..
My single greatest Napa Bottle - And I did NOT want it to be a cult wine - was a 2002 Bond St..Eden
Oakville - but coming from the Eastern Side (To Kalon for those who might not know is in the West side) getting more sun and a completely different soil structure with all that Red dusty Rhyolite that had washed down of the Vaca). That wine in my tasting experience - on that particular day (2011 ish so year 9) is quite literally twice as Good as any Napa wine..nearly any wine I've had in my nearly 30.years working professionally in wine. I was blessed a friend purchased that amazing bottle specifically share to me a few years ago and although it was stunning at that point in his life cycle it was just another superbly made Napa cab coming office apex and turning into a beautiful piece of liquid history.
Kiddies... I'm sorry for this long diet tribe but if I'm going to make the next statement I wanted to give it some context and let you know that I put a lot of thought before posting this. I tasted this 2023 that I acquired for my friend Kyle Kyle M. Janzen nearly 3 weeks ago. I was with some friends - I decided that I was going to let myself just enjoy a wine and not be analytic about it and I was going to grab something that was truly of a high level. I wasn't going to pontificate, I wasn't going to analyze - for the first time and maybe 5 years I was just going to "get my drank on" with a freaking amazing bottle of wine
Huge fan of Kirk Vigne but have always preferred his style of winemaking with Janzens tiny Estate Vineyard (Cloudy's) or even Vineyard X (haha..I mean - Missouri Hopper ) or of my tasty tasty favorites the legendary Bacio Davino Sangio/Cab blend that put them in the map. My thought is that Kirk's stylistic use of new French and how it translates in the bottle was a little too heavy-handed for the subtleness of a lot of what makes To Kalon great.
Welp - was I WRONG about that..lol
This wine was....it was -
A wine that just steals the breath from you.
From the moment your nose hits the glass and then hits your tongue with even more flavors and finesse than you were expecting from that heavenly balanced, nuanced Bouquet that.had already started to make your knees buckle.
This wine was... everything. . everything everyone in this particular group dreams of when they open up a great bottle to share (at least it was on that night to my personal palette).
From what I read I really believe it was in a style that what so many of you describe Graham McDonald's To Kalon tasting like when hitting its stride (I still have not had the pleasure but man I am making a vow that I'm going to get 3 in before the end of the year - why 3? Because brother couldn't handle four!).
Back to Kyle & Kirk's wine.
Sublime - starts at flawless and grabs you but the soul to take you in a ride you don't deserve as a human.
Seriously - that good, on this night, for me.
Body chemistry, humidity, bottle storage temperature (hey Oliver and even throw in it may have been a flower day I don't care) the company, the stem..all of it was perfect .
Number 3 on the greatest bottles I have ever tasted in my entire life. Let me rephrase that.. number three on the enjoyment level of the bottles I've had in my entire life.
1. 2010 Emanuel Rouget - Eschazeau
2. 2002 Bond St. Eden.
3. ***Janzen To Kalon**
4. 2008.Curran "Riserva" Grenache
5. 1985 Concannon Petite Sirah.
Tied with
1974 Kenwood (taste at 40.years old).
Wow.. I feel like I've shared like my whole wine tasting soul rather than just review of a single wine.. but I felt that this particular wine on this night deserved The extra verbiage.... I am also going through a full throttle midlife crisis and so I'm very reflective and chatty. I'm sorry you had to be the victims 🙂
Go drink some great wine and I'd love to hear your top five and why.
I love this group. ❤️
