Diamond Creek Vineyards named

"Winery of the Year" by Wine & Spirits Magazine

Winemaker Phil Steinschriber, owner and founder Al Brounstein

As an entrepreneur in the fifties, Al Brounstein became a successful pharmaceuticals wholesaler in Southern California. By the mid-sixties, he was ready for a new career and looked to the Napa Valley and a 70-acre parcel of land on Diamond Mountain to satisfy his fascination with wine. In 1966, before he was even able to purchase the land, he smuggled vine cuttings in from two premier cru properties in Bordeaux, personally flying them up from Tijuana, Mexico to a nursery in St. Helena.

He acquired the land in 1967 and began planting it in 1968, identifying three vineyard blocks by the differences in soil structure and exposition, and naming them for their geological forms Red Rock Terrace (seven acres with reddish- brown soil facing north), Gravelly Meadow (five relatively flat acres with a gravelly, sandy soil) and Volcanic Hill (eight acres of white volcanic ash on the hillside facing south).

Brounstein has an historical record of these three vineyards from the 1972 vintage forward, as well as of the three-quarter acre Lake Vineyard which he bottles separately in certain vintages. He was decades ahead of the current trend toward micro-wineries and cult cabernets in Napa. And, as if to prove the value of that record, or certainly the quality of the wines, Diamond Creek's Cabernets regularly sell out at prices that put most cult wines to shame. The 1998 wines carry a price of $150 a bottle for each of the three vineyards; the 1996 Lake bottling is $350.

For the first two decades, Brounstein worked with winemaker Jerry Luper, and together they developed the artisanal techniques for Diamond Creek's wines. For the last ten years, Phil Steinschriber has been the winemaker. Today, at the age of 80, Brounstein continues to run the winery with his wife, Boots. Dick Peterson and his daughter Heidi serve as consultants, as does Leo McCloskey of Enologix, and all participate regularly on Brounsteinís tasting panel along with Steinschriber. The panel checks on the wine as it matures in cask, and together they have created an extraordinary body of wines. Originally, the Diamond Creek wines were hard to handle on release, and required long aging to evolve into the beauties they have since become. In the most recent vintages of the 1990s, the wines have been considerably more accessible. Brounstein attributes this to certain changes, particularly to canopy management in the vineyard, and tannin management in the cellar.

When Steinschriber arrived, the vineyards were in a two-wire California sprawl. We slowly instated vertical trellising, he explains. In Lake first, mostly because I needed a machete to get through it. Certain areas received a vertical trellis, more vigorous areas received a true Geneva double curtain, with the canes trained downward so the fruit is at the top. Now we harvest very ripe, sometimes into November. Weíve gone to stainless steel fermenters, all small, which we can both heat or cool; a new crusher that allows us to do pumpless crushing. We want concentration and longevity in the wines, but not an overly tannic style.

The remarkable 1997s demonstrate the value of this viticultural and winemaking evolution. W&S Contributing Editor Charles Rubinstein, who has been a collector of the Diamond Creek wines since 1978, notes that Volcanic Hill used to be the least accessible on release, though it varies from year to year. In fact, the 1997 Volcanic Hill is just the opposite - soft and plummy all the way through, the sweetest, most velvety and approachable of the three wines. Brounstein finds Volcanic Hill to be the longest lived of his wines, and has the history to prove it. In this warm and bountiful vintage, it's fresh and plummy, remarkably open in comparison to the earthier and deeper tones of the north-facing Red Rock Terrace. This one is layered and chewy, with a silken texture and that lasting, earthy complexity. The vineyard in the middle, Gravelly Meadow, provides the freshest, most succulent cabernet, rich, gracious and balanced to mature for years. Each wine shows its vineyard character in a clearly delineated personality: three great terroir expressions of Napa Valley.

This year, Brounstein received approval to plant three additional acres across the creek from the Lake vineyard, on soils similar to Volcanic Hill. He will plant it closely spaced, four-by-seven, rather than the eight-by-twelve of the rest of his vineyards. And Brounstein believes it will make their best wine yet.

Written By Joshua Greene Courtesy of Wine & Spirits Magazine - Winter 2000 edition. Photo by Marvin Collin

diamond creek vineyards
1500 diamond mtn. rd.
calistoga, ca 94515
ph: 707.942.6926
fax: 707.942.6936