MacDonald: Napa Valley's Best Kept Cabernet Secret

You've undoubtedly heard of Opus 1 and some of the more prestigious Robert Mondavi bottlings, but what you may not realize is that, for more than 50 years, some of the very best fruit that went into those bottlings was not even grown by the Mondavis. Rather, that fruit was grown by the MacDonald family. Back in the mid-1950s, the MacDonald family had fortuitously purchased a cherry orchard that turned out to be right in the middle of the prestigious Tocolon Vineyard. The MacDonald family reportedly purchased this property for as little as $500 per acre. For more than 50 years, the MacDonalds sold 100% of the fruit that they produced to Robert Mondavi on nothing more than a handshake deal and trust. After doing some experimenting producing their own wine, in 2010, brothers Alex and Graham MacDonald finally felt confident enough in the quality of the wine to bottle a wine under their own family name. Almost immediately, the MacDonald Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon became one of the most coveted collectible wines in all of Napa Valley, and it remains so to this day. In addition to world-class winemaking, one of the things that makes the MacDonald wine so special is the very unique high-quality fruit they're able to produce from this special section of Tocolon. While the entire Tocolon Vineyard is certainly known for high quality, the parcel that's owned by the MacDonalds is in a special area. The Tocolon Creek runs through it, and as such, it tends to be a little bit more rocky than some of the other areas of the Tocolon Vineyard. Better yet, the MacDonald family has some of the oldest vines in all of Napa Valley. They have three primary blocks of vines that average 30, 50, and even 70 years old. Those 70-year-old vines are truly special, and are some of the original plantings from the mid-1950s. While you may think it would be tempting to produce a wine exclusively from the 70-year-old vines, which do produce amazing world-class fruit, they've actually found that could produce a more complete, complex wine by using parcels from each of the three different blocks. In fact, this week, I walked this historic vineyard and tasted fruit from each of those blocks, which has not yet been harvested. Even the grapes tasted dramatically different from one block to the other, although all of them were quite tasty. 2023 is a tremendous vintage in Napa Valley, and the MacDonalds certainly knocked it out of the park with their 2023 bottling. You can expect flavors and aromas of blackcurrant, black cherry, graphite, sage, dark chocolate, and mixed spice. This is a powerful wine, but one that's extremely elegant. There's ample acidity, and a very long, complex finish. If you haven't tried this wine yet, it should absolutely be on your bucket list. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to track down, as demand greatly exceeds supply. So your best bet, if you're not already on the mailing list, is to probably try to track one down in the secondary market, or try to befriend someone who's on the list already. If you'd like some suggestions for your next trip to Napa Valley, please be sure to check out this video that's linked above, where I share some of my favorite Napa Valley winery experiences.