Very limited!
Tasting Notes
The aromas of our To Kalon bottling are consistent: An opaque ruby color in the glass greets the eye, while the olfactories are treated to notes of blackberry and blueberry pie, creme de cassis, red roses, cocoa, violets, rose petals, and occasionally an exotic spice element. The trick here is to walk the tightrope between tannin and acid structure—which gives longevity—and the opulence that the sunny site gives freely.
-From arguably the greatest vineyard in California for Cabernet Sauvignon.
Blend: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Only 22 barrels (550 cases)!
 
Inspiration
Power. Structure with grace. There is a self-possession to wines that hail from To Kalon, and this is the ideal we aspire to every year. The wines can be mesmerizing. Humbling. Transporting. When we have this hair-raising encounter with the sublime while tasting the new wine out of barrel, we know we’re close to the mark. To Kalon means “the place of highest beauty.” Paris-based artists Dana and Stéphane Maitec designed the label around a close-up of the front of a vintage camera, subtly reflecting a woman’s silhouette, representing that the beauty is in fact in the eye of the beholder.
Terroir
Planted since 1868, Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard is not only one of the greatest Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in the Napa Valley, it is one of the finest in the world. This giant alluvial fan of gravelly soils offers perfect drainage. August and imposing, the vineyard always gives a wine with pronounced cassis, turned soil, and graphite aromas and a texture that is simply luxuriant. It is to Oakville what Château Latour is to Pauillac: opulent, restrained, and near-immortal.
Vice Versa was founded by Ottawa native and entrepreneur Patrice Breton. From his youth, Patrice always sought a vocation that would combine his passions: creativity, science, art and culture, and he finally found this nexus in Vice Versa. 2024 will mark Vice Versa’s 22nd vintage in the Napa Valley. Patrice learned winemaking at the side of Paul Hobbs who produced several vintages in the early 2000s with Patrice but were never released. Patrice learned as much as he could during his time directly working with Hobbs. The first commercial release of Vice Versa was from the 2003 vintage. Paul was winemaker from 2003 through 2013. When Paul began to become busier with his own consulting clients and international projects Philippe Melka and his team including winemaker Maayan Koschitzky were brought on board to craft the wines. They made some changes in the winemaking including introducing longer fermentation times, longer maceration times and never using any pressed juice.
Today, Spencer Kelly heads a winemaking team which also includes Philippe Melka and Maayan Koschitzky of Atelier Melka. They and every other member of our coterie are driven by passion for our shared métier.
We acquired an estate vineyard in Calistoga in 2019, and the summer of 2024 will see the launch of a new winery facility there. Our greatest wines are perpetually ahead of us.
Their labels have been designed by two of the best in the business – first by Chuck House of Icon Design Group and a more recent completely different iteration by Napa based Richard Von Saal of VonSaal Design which ties in an image relating to ‘vice versa’ using curvilinear lines while also representing the Fibonacci sequence (where each subsequent number is the addition of the two preceding ones, starting from 0 and 1).