Diamond Creek Red Rock Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
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This Red Rock Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon is characterized by distinct velvety tannins, rich and well balanced, medium dark ruby color with cherry, mint and black currant flavors.
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Wine & Spirits
A California beauty, this wine is driven by fruit from the moment it's first poured, supercharged with energy that only seems to increase over the course of several days. Mouthwatering plum, cool earth, saturated layers of fig, eucalyptus and spice, all delicious and all incidental to the power that courses through the wine. Grown in soil reddened by iron oxide, the tannins have that ferrous character of wild mushrooms flash roasted in an iron skillet. That warm, earthen character contrasts with the foresty tone of the wine, as cool as the manzanita grove just up the creek. All three of the Diamond Creek wines in 2005 draw their complexity directly from their varied soils and expositions, with fruit ripened to a dynamic, natural balance. The tension between fruit and earth in Red Rock Terrace is particularly awesome on release.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2005 Red Rock Terrace has a slightly more saturated, ruby/purple color, with a little more backward and introspective personality, more noticeable tannin, and a blacker, more primordial personality. Fuller-bodied and denser, it is rich, young and seems years behind the more precocious and evolved Gravelly Meadow. There is great acid buttressing a youthful, promising, budding superstar of the vintage. Forget it for another 5-6 years, and drink it over the following two decades plus.
Rating: 95+
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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.