A German sommelier friend told me had never had an older Napa wine. I told him when he came to NYC I would fix that. We had dinner together last night at The Four Horseman and I brought this along.
The bottle was from the Joseph Phelps auction so until it was shipped to my storage a year ago it had never left Napa.
It was a stunning bottle. Leather, earth, graphite, dark color with no signs of its age. Beautifully ripe fruit. 12 abv on the label, who knows if that was correct but it sure was a light elegant wine. Needless to say I made a believer out of him…
It also made me think of Ketan Mody and his Jasud project, as the 70s era Diamond Creeks are his inspiration. I can see Jasud drinking like this in 50 years. Interestingly the 19 Jasud is 12.3 abv and that is correct.
Oh I wish I had more of these. But we do have Jasud!
Is there a difference between Jasud and Beta? I found the website rather confusing. I also noted that I signed up when you first posted about this project in 2019, but never received any info from them.
Jasud is the estate project from the vineyard that Ketan has been working on for the last 10 years or so on top of Diamond Mountain. Beta are wines he has been making from cool climate sites over the last several years while he awaits the estate vineyard. He made his first wine from the estate vineyard in 2019, about 20 cases, and then the fires hit and he lost a good portion of this area of the vineyard. No Jasud wines have been released. He opened the 19 for me at his house and in true Ketan fashion disappeared because it is such an emotional wine for him that took 10+ years. It was one of the greatest Napa wines I have ever had, I shed a few tears…
Marketing, websites, organization etc. are not his thing. Luckily he has someone helping him. Check out Glen’s recent write up from his visit. Ketan gives his all to everything he does and tries to make every visit special.
1974 Diamond Creek sounds wonderful. The oldest I have had is some of their 1978s and they were fabulous. A number of years ago, when I had the 78 Volcanic Hill, it was favored by most people at the dinner over 79 Lafite.
78 Diamond Creek’s are some of the best wines ever made in California. The 74s are also fantastic. I drank through all my 74s a decade ago. Fabulous that you can drink them now.
What is his personal history that Led to the drive for this project. It sounds very romantic and like something I would have dreamed when People called me a “hippie”. To land at the top of a Napa mountain must contain a back story though.