Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow Cabernet Sauvignon 2015

Professional Ratings

• 97 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Gravelly Meadow opens with a lovely floral perfume of violets and rose hip tea with a core of chocolate-covered cherries, mulberries, blueberry compote and plum preserves plus hints of wood smoke, tobacco and menthol. Full-bodied and firmly framed with grainy tannins and background freshness, it has gorgeous earthy layers and a mineral-tinged finish.
• 96 James Suckling
  The aromas of mint, blueberries and blackberries are very intense. Full-bodied, layered and softly textured; yet it delivers a firm and lightly chewy finish. Hot stones, too. This is a wine that will improve with three to four years of bottle aging.
• 94 Wine Enthusiast
  Soy, tobacco and dried herb mark this appropriately named wine, which does indeed have a gravelly, chalky aspect to its texture and taste. From a five-acre vineyard block of the estate, it is endlessly complex and nuanced, despite its full-bodied richness and concentration.
• 93 Wine Spectator
  Tight and focused on a core of currant, blackberry, spice, black licorice and cedar flavors, gliding along on the aftertaste, which is pure and plush. This gets better with aeration. Best from 2021 through 2033.
• 91 Wine & Spirits

  Planted on a gravel wash along the south bank of Diamond Creek in 1968, the vines at Gravelly Meadow took a while to get established. Phil Steinschriber made this wine from the concentrated yields of those old, thick-trunked beasts. In 2015, the wine feels as thick as those trunks, black fruited and rich. There’s grip to the tannins and some volatility adding a bruised-fruit note to the finish, youthfully intense, needing bottle age to mellow and integrate.