MacDonald - Vineyard Tour and Tasting

Hallowed Ground: To Kalon at its finest

After months and months of trying, my wife Dio and I were able to get a reservation at The French Laundry and planned a short trip to Napa with a few winery visits leading up to our meal.

I had heard many great things about MacDonald Cabernet Sauvignon but had never had the chance to taste their wine. And prior to this trip had not been able to schedule a tasting at MacDonald. The main reason being: this estate is just the two MacDonald brothers - they have limited time for tastings so it can be a challenge getting a tasting scheduled for sure!

However, the stars aligned on this trip and Dio and I headed to the MacDonald family home for an afternoon tasting! Alex met us when we arrived, gave us a personal tour of the vineyard while telling the story of his family, the land, the handshake agreement with Mondovi, how they got into making wine and a number of other amazing stories. At the end of the vineyard tour, we headed inside his home and tasted the wonderful MacDonald Cabernet Sauvignon. I was shocked when I learned the wine I was drinking was from 2020! This was a tough year in Napa as many producers had been affected by smoke - but because of the age of their oldest vines and the fact that those vines can reach the water table and not ingest smoke (and their choice to limit production to just those vines), they made a remarkable wine in a very challenging vintage.

Here’s my CellarTracker tasting note (they only make one wine):

97 pts. Tasted with Alex. The only '20 Napa Cab I've tried to date. If you have old vine Cabernet grapes and know what you're doing (they do) you can make a fantastic 2020 Napa Cabernet This is it. Full stop.

I cannot wait until my first allocation (2021) arrives!