vibrant, youthful, still with powdery, soft tannins and an expressive, long finish. what i love about this vineyard from the 1980’s is what it isn’t: megapurple, really sweet, dark, brooding. this wine makes a strong statement while embodying lighter cherry & cassis flavors and being completely willing to accompany and compliment cuisine. they say RRT is the most approachable of the Diamond Creek vineyards but don’t for a second think this wine can’t age gracefully. i don’t know about the supposed stylistic changes of the past 20 years, and i can’t afford to pay the current freight, but these DC bottles from the 1980’s rock hard.
hope to hear from other DC fans here.
There is some magic line in the sand somewhere in the early '80s after which Parker insists Diamond Creek is no good anymore. I attended a Diamond Creek vertical back to the mid-'70s awhile ago and I doubt that dividing line was evident to a single person there. I think they are another one in the group of producers like Heitz, ESJ, etc. that gets tarred as going downhill when they’ve been doing the same thing all along and it’s the rest of the world going downhill.
Hi Glenn,
I have had some great Diamond Creeks over the last couple of years from the decade of the 1970s, but my only taste from the winery from the 1980s were some pretty unsuccessful 1987s back in 2002 at a big horizontal of the vintage. I had always liked the 1984s, which I tasted out of the blocks with some regularity (rather masochistic, no?), but have not seen any of the bottlings from the vintage now in more than ten years. I am glad to hear that the RRT is drinking well and coming into its apogee. Your note makes me want to track down and taste the '87s again, just in case we did not have pristine examples at our tasting back then. I have been really impressed with most of the '84s that I have tasted recently, and it may well prove that this vintage ends up being the finest of that string of successes for cabernet between '84 and '87- where ironically, it was the least touted of the four vintages when the wines were released.
Diamond Creek has made a simply stunning legacy of great cabernets over the course of its existence, and if there were First Growths in California, they would certainly be deserving of such a rank in my cabernet universe. As you noted, one of the things that is so impressive about their wines is their willingness to allow the wines to show their fruit complexity and bases of soil without pumping up the volume in the cellar. I can only rank Mayacamas up there with Diamond Creek in terms of cabernets that develop such complexity with bottle age and which so strikingly allow equal billing for their soil elements at peak maturity. Wish I had an '84 RRT in the cellar to pull this evening, as your note makes me thirsty. May have to grab a bottle of Mayacamas…
All the Best,
John
Hey…that would have paired well with a 2005 Roulot???
Ya in town Mon?
John - I am with you about 1984 being perhaps the very best and longest-lived of that quartet of great, consecutive 1980’s vintages, also a fan of Orwell’s novel and Bowie’s song! Have there ever been four better consecutive vintages here in America? Recently got a few 1984 Hanzell Cabernet Sauvignon bottles (remember their Cab program) and look forward to seeing what life they have left.
A 1987 Diamond Creek horizontal would be an interesting time indeed now 20+ years from harvest. I suspect the wines would show better than they did in 2002.
Thx for your thoughts - Glenn
Had a 1979 Volcanic Hill over the weekend that was also very good. Real lush, nice cherry fruit and long. Haven’t tried anything past 1991 from them yet.
Glenn; I do love the older Diamond Creeks’. However, I am not sure if there is a “line in the sand”, but I personally detected a qualitative decline after the '85 vintage. I hope the wines are back on a positive track, but I have not purchased any since the 1985 vintage. We could try a few older ones next time we get together.
Cheers!
Marshall
Had a 2004 Volcanic Hill at Press on my last Napa trip and it was stellar. It surprised me and made me want to taste more DCs and re-confirmed that I like to form my own opinions rather than rely on scores.