Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow Magnum Highlights Family Wine Dinner

Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow Magnum Highlights Family Wine Dinner

With son Will laying over amidst trancontinental flights, he and brother Matt came home for a family dinner at Bill and Beth C's and I was included. To celebrate the gathering, Bill opened a magnum of Diamond Creek Gravelly Meadow 1996. For a comparison tasting I brought a 1996 Arns Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. This also provided a preview since Will will be joining us for our upcoming Napa trip where we'll be touring and tasting there.

Following starters of stewed meatballs, breaded macaroni and cheese balls and selection of fresh fruits and artisan cheeses, Beth served dinner featuring grilled steak ternderloin, steamed broccolli spears, twice baked potatoes with a fresh dinner salad. To round out the mix, Bill opened a Ruston Family Vineyards La Maestra Napa Cab 2006 and a birth-year wine Raymond Vineyards Private Reserve Napa Cab 1989. For starters, Matt brought a tasting selection - La Crema Mendocino County Anderson Valley Pinot Noir 2009.

To finish, Molly had baked chocolate brownies which she served with french vanilla ice cream. To accompany the final course, Bill opened a Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Moscat d'Oro 2011 desert wine. 

Diamond Creek Napa Valley Gravelly Meadow Cabernet Sauvignon 1996 

Our tour and dinner tasting at Diamond Creek Winery was one of the highlights of our Napa Valley Diamond Mountain Wine Experience 2011. We served this wine from birthyear magnums at son Ryan's and Michelle's wedding. Bill and I continue to collect this wine for special  vintages and special occasions. The magnum served tonight was such a feature. 

 Opened and decanted for about ninety minutes before serving, it was medium bodied and dark garnet colored. It showed surprisingly vibrant and bright forward black cherry and black currant fruit flavors early.  As these settled over the ensuing two hours, it became more complex and Bordeaux-like with the fruit accented by bright floral tones reminiscent of a Margaux, accented by cassis, hints of dark chocolate, roasted coffee bean and earth tones with a smooth moderate tannin finish. 

RM 91 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=35593

http://www.diamondcreekvineyards.com/ 
 

Arns Napa Valley Cabernet Sauivignon 1996 

We have several vintages of this wine in the cellar but our tasting experience is minimal so we were eager to open this and compare against a classic benchmark wine like the Diamond Creek; also since we're scheduled to visit the winery in a few weeks and we want to develop a vocabulary and more knowledge and experience with this wine.  

The Arns was medium to full bodied with dark garnet color. After opening, it still remained a bit closed and tight with subdued black berry and black raspberry fruits offset by a layer of cassis, tea, and baking spice, with subtle tones of spicy oak, with subtle tannins on a moderate short finish, perhaps indicative of its age. 

RM 89 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=65444 

http://arnswinery.com/  

Ruston Family Vineyards La Maestra Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Bill's tasting notes from Cellartracker - "Medium garnet color. Pepper and spice on the palate with a hint of dark cherry. Medium finish and light tannins. The merlot came through more than the Cabernet. Drank with strawberries and artisan cheeses prior to a gala dinner with the children at home." WCC 86 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=511496  

http://www.rustonwines.com  

 

 

 

Raymond Vineyards Private Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1989

Commemorating Matt's birthyear, Bill opened this to celebrate Matt and Molly being with us for the evening, and to see if there is still life left in this aged vintage library bottle. 

Medium bodied, dark purple color, this wine still has life and is acceptable but its certainly passed its prime and is not going to improve any further. The black berry and cherry fruits are a bit muted having given way a bit to a slight funkiness of earthy leather, tea and tobacco, turning to tight lingering tannins on the short moderate finish.

RM 86

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=258295 

http://www.raymondvineyards.com/ 

 

La Crema Mendocino County Anderson Valley Pinot Noir 2009

A limited-production Pinot Noir sourced from two small vineyards up in Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley, adjacent to the last stand of redwoods  before you reach the Pacific. Maggy Hawk Vineyard is subjected to constant cooling from its proximity to the ocean. A small percentage comes from Palmer Vineyard fruit for additional clonal complexity. 

A merchant had a stock of this and asked Matt to weigh in so he picked this up and brought for us to assess. Medium bodied, somewhat opaque ruby colored, the fruit was somewhat subdued cherry and plum fruits giving way to tea, a woody cedar, dust and hints of slightly earthy cinnamon spice on a somewhat subdued tannin finish.

RM 86 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1126927

http://www.lacrema.com/ 

 

Ruston Family Vineyards La Maestra Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Red Wine Blend 2002

Ruston Family Vineyards La Maestra Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Red Wine Blend 2002

Named for Lorraine Ruston who first planted this small hillside vineyard west of St. Helena - she teaches English as a second language in Napa Valley. Her namesake wine possesses dark inky purple color - full bodied - initial slight earthy leather bled off over the first hour to reveal big full aromas and flavors of blackberry, a subtle layer of sweet black raspberry, tones of creme de cassis, smoke, charcoal, tar and hints of cedar with long lingering mouth puckering smoke/tar laced tannins. Was a very nice good accompaniment to beef tenderloin au poivre and baked sweet potato. After about two and 1/2 hours the sweet black raspberry with a hint of subtle mocha emerged and became more pronounced on the finish.

(54% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot, 8% Petit Verdot, and 5% Cabernet Franc)

RM 90 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=99251

Ruston wines from the 1999-2001 vintages were crafted by Bordeaux-trained winemaker Philippe Melka. This 2002 release was done by Joshua Krupp, another rising star Napa winemaker who worked previously  with Mia Klein at Fisher Vineyards, Paul Hobbs and Michel Chapoutier in the French Rhone River Valley.  

http://www.rustonwines.com