Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill Cabernet Sauvignon (3 Liter) 2016
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Winemaker Notes
Volcanic Hill is comprised of 8 acres of south facing hillside vineyard. It is the warmest of all our micro-climates. The color of the soil is gray, and the consistency is that of fluffy, volcanic ash, originally deposited from the eruption of Mt. Konocti 8 million years ago.
Volcanic Hill is the longest lived of our wines. Our winemaker describes these wines as "full bodied, loaded with intense ripe berry fruit, cassis, violets and a smoky richness, finishing with good length and firm tannins."
The Volcanic Hill bottling includes a small amount of the extra-ordinary Petit Verdot grape..
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Hill is blended of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot 2% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it charges out of the gate with exuberant black cherry cordial, plum preserves and blueberry pie notions with touches of dark chocolate, cinnamon stick, cloves, camphor and candied violets. Full-bodied, the palate is decadently fruited with black and blue berry layers, framed by firm yet plush tannins and seamless freshness, finishing with wonderfully long-lasting, opulent baking spice nuances.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2016 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill Cabernet Sauvignon takes the prize as the winery's most beautiful Cab of the vintage. TASTING NOTES: This wine is packed, chewy, and lasting. Its concentrated black fruit aromas and flavors stay firm through the wine's finish. (Tasted: August 19, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
Blackberries and blueberries with pine nuts and ink. Wet earth and fresh mushrooms. Full body with a vortex of fruit that just squeezes through at the finish. Ripe and polished tannins. Extremely long. Needs four to five years of bottle age. Try after 2023.
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Wine Spectator
Offers a dense core of ripe and fleshy fruit, with plum, cassis and blackberry notes held in check for now by racy, charcoal-edged tannins. The finish is very long, rippling with sanguine and smoldering cast iron details that give this serious mouthwatering cut. Best from 2022 through 2040.
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Wine & Spirits
As the 2016 Diamond Creek cabernets emerge from several years of rest in barrels and bottles, it’s Volcanic Hill that shows the best and brightest. “There’s a volcanic-soil character adding texture to the palate, with less grape and oak tannins and more minerality” said Ryan Bailey of *NoMad LA†, comparing it to the other top cabernets of the tasting. It’s an elegant vintage of Volcanic Hill, a cabernet of high-intensity fruit that calms to cool red- and black-currant generosity. Crushed-mineral tannins seem to clarify the fruit, bringing out the light and air in the wine, so that it ends on an impression of blue skies.
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Connoisseurs' Guide
Although showing the first signs of polish that indelibly marks it as in the same family as its two partners, the Volcanic Hill bottling is a bit sturdier overall with a little more sinew under its flesh. It is not overly tough or tannic, however, just slightly firmer in build, and it comes with a full complement of continuous, very keenly defined, classic Cabernet fruit along with just the right touch of sweet oak and subtle suggestions of stony soil. It, too, gets high marks for its balance and careful proportion, and, if warranting a wait of no less than five years, it is guaranteed to only impress more if held for ten.
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A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Diamond Mountain is the northernmost mountain appellation in the Mayacamas Range, on the northwest side of the valley floor, above the town of Calistoga. Defined mainly by elevation, vineyards are planted at 400 to 2,200 feet.
Diamond Mountain vineyards receive plenty of sunshine at these elevations and are typically above the coastal fog line. But given its western proximity, the area still easily cools down from early morning and late afternoon Pacific Ocean breezes. The AVA (American Viticultural Area) covers 5,000 acres but just over 500 acres are under vine.
Diamond Mountain soils, mainly weathered, red sedimentary rock and decomposed, volcanic ash, are infertile, quick-draining and produce small, thick-skinned grapes, bursting with chewy tannins.
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Zinfandel have great success here.
Like other sub-appellations in Napa Valley, the Diamond Mountain area had no shortage of pioneer winemakers. Rudy von Strasser led the effort for Diamond Mountain to acquire AVA status in 1999.