In about 1965, friends told me about a recent discovery in a collector's cellar in the East Bay, two vintages of Cabernet from a winery on the Peninsula called La Questa. I can still remember my astonishment when I tasted them, for suddenly I had a newfound confidence that California could compete with the best from Bordeaux; the wines were great, and the vintages were 1936 and 1938, and the wines were not quite ready! Will wonders never cease?

Later I learned that the winery's founder, Emmet Hawkins Rixford, had written a book in the 1880s on how wine was made in Bordeaux. Here was a true pioneering California vintner! His winery was long gone when I discovered him, but I learned that there were a few giant old Cabernet vines in the backyards of houses built years later amidst his original vineyard. By this time I was planting my own vineyard, and in 1973 I went sneaking around in Woodside cutting "bud wood" for a few test rows of what I believe to be the original La Questa clone. Where did Mr. Rixford find his cuttings? I don't know but I am confident it would have been from a fine Bordeaux vineyard, for he was a man with a mission. Today at York Creek we have a small block of Cabernet Sauvignon, budded entirely to this Rixford clone, which we call the "Horseshoe" because of its shape. For several years, I have made a separate fermentation, and because of its unique character I decided to bottle a little as a separate wine. It's 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and all from the "Horseshoe" block. I would describe this as an intense Cabernet, distinctive, spicy, rich. And it's what I like to call "a good story that's true."