On New Year’s Eve before Y2K, I was at a friend’s house and we had 1978 Volcanic Hill and 1979 Lafite. I preferred the Volcanic Hill. I never had a lot of wine from Diamond Creek but I owned a few bottles from the late 1970s or early 1980s (as did this friend) and they were very fine wines. In the 90s, I went to a number of barrel sample tastings done by MacArthur Beverages here and still thought the wines were quite good although I found them overpriced compared with other wines - like Monte Bello, Togni and Chateau Montelena. So, I have not bought or tasted one in a long time.
As far as I have ever heard (and as far as I have tasted), the 1978 is the classic vintage for Diamond Creek. If you can find the 1978, I suggest you get it. If you are going to try a Diamond Creek, why not try one of these. Alternatively, what vintages does Bern’s have? In any case, try to get one when it was still made by Al.
In addition to the great vintages already mentioned, I can highly recommend the '92 Volcanic Hill as a vintage maybe a bit easier to find and still wonderful. We have only a few '78s and '81s left, but have quietly backfilling '92 based on a few recent bottles.
Looking around, I found some 1993, but sorta got a chuckle on the Parker comments on stylistic change:
The 1993 Volcanic Hill exhibits smoky, black-cherry fruit, is medium to full-bodied, and excruciatingly tannic. Is there enough fat, flesh, and flavor extraction to stand up to the tannin? [> b]> Does anyone know why a winery that became legendary among California Cabernet Sauvignon enthusiasts would completely change the style of its wines after having enjoyed such remarkable success and loyalty from its fans? I have had serious reservations about the quality of Diamond Creek’s wines and the dramatic change in style following the 1984 vintage. > [/b]> The 1993 Gravelly Meadow and Volcanic Hill appear to be very good, but they are not made in the style of the great Diamond Creek Cabernets made in 1978, 1977, 1976, and 1974. Amateurs of those wines would not recognize the still tannic but far less concentrated, tough, austere style of wine now being produced> . - Robert Parker, Wine Advocate #98 (Apr 27, 1995)
From the man that later on ushered in such dramatic change in Bordeaux and CDP.
Bought the 13s and just split a half case of the 18s with a friend. Going to be a while before either of those get opened though. Maybe in another 10 years I’ll have some tasting notes on those 13s
PSA - Schaeffer’s in Skokie, Illinois has a 5 liter 1980 Volcanic Hill for $1800.00 and a 12 liter 1985 Gravelly Meadow for $2500. Lots of predominantly older French and California wines available, all stored under impeccable cellar conditions. I haven’t bought much from them over the years, but of the bottles I purchased, all were in great shape. No affiliation other than as a satisfied customer.
I’m down to '83s and '86s of the Diamond Creek Cabs as those are kid’s birthyears. Over the years we preferred the '74, '75, and '76s over the '78s when looking at the 3 main bottlings, although our single bottle of the '78 Lake was otherworldly when we drank it about 15 years ago. I don’t think you could go wrong with properly stored bottles of any of these vintages. There were a few obscure bottlings I would avoid, though. They were labeled as blends of various types or first or second pick, and although I don’t know the details, they always seemed like wines that didn’t make the cut for the primary bottlings.
We had all three wines from vintages 84-87 at my fiftieth, no Lake though. Good crowd finished nearly all twelve bottles but we recorked some RRT & VH for the next afternoon. No GM survived the first night.
Ok I will chime in. One of the greatest expressions of Terroir in California. A true inspiration to a younger generation of current winemakers like Ketan Mody and Graeme MacDonald. I was extremely fortunate to attend a two day tasting of about 30 vintages with a group of Napa winemakers and sadly the more recent vintages are too ripe for my tastes. I poured a 78 for Ulli Stein (a German winemaker) and he smiled from ear-to-ear and said I taste the soil…
I also enjoyed a beautiful 90 Lake over Pizza with Klaus-Peter Keller at Robertas. It was a tad under ripe but in the most elegant way possible.
My favorite U.S. wine to pour for non-U.S. winemakers.
Woof. What a pull quote. Christ, now I’m depressed. And pining for the California of yesteryear. Like a best friend before they went off in search of big dollars in the big city…
William, I agree about finding '94 or before-had couple of late 90’s and noticed huge drop in qualities for some reason. Haven’t had the recent vintages, but do you think they are coming back? Despite Al passing away and all?
Roederer just bought Diamond Creek, and between what they are doing in Champagne (organic/biodynamic, massale selections & other things) and what they are doing at Pichon-Lalande, I am quite optimistic. We will see what happens…!
For what it’s worth I totally agree with this. Al died around the 1985 vintage, and every time I tasted anything post 1984, I found them strangely lacking. There as some improvement in the early 1990s, but still nowhere close to its former glory.
At some point they stopped using large open vats to ferment the wine. Given the power of those sites switching to different winemaking protocols must have increased the Tannin profile.
