As you’ve probably noticed, our Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon preferences skew toward the ‘legacy’ producers—those who’ve been around long enough to remember what the iconic Napa Cabernets of the ‘70s and ‘80s tasted like, and who continue to channel those wines in their current-day production.
Rudy Von Strasser, a standard-bearer of mountain-grown Napa Cabernet for 30 years, has surely earned inclusion in this group; he was instrumental in creating the Diamond Mountain AVA, both through his winemaking and his advocacy, and these wines are tried-and-true classics. Today’s wine is Von Strasser’s flagship bottling from the 2016 vintage, which delivers an unbelievable level of quality and true terroir expression for just $49. This is a winery with a long track record of critical acclaim and, given the inflationary nature of fine wine (and Napa fine wine especially), could likely charge more for this bottling. And they’d deserve it: This is muscular, balanced, classically structured Cabernet Sauvignon that out-performs innumerable competitors priced two and three times higher. When I add Napa wines to my cellar, I add wines like this, because I’m looking to drink them, not re-sell them, years down the road. This is an affordable luxury and a bona-fide Napa benchmark that should not be missed.
The Diamond Mountain district is one of the many sub-appellations “nested” within the greater Napa Valley, located at the northern end of the valley near Calistoga. Part of the Mayacamas Range on the western side of the valley, Diamond Mountain’s soils are mostly volcanic in origin, with vineyards situated at altitudes from 400 to 2,200 feet. Like most of Napa’s mountain appellations, Diamond Mountain sees cooler temperatures and a touch more rainfall than the AVAs on the Valley floor, which results in more rigidly structured wines.
Von Strasser originally intended to be a cider-maker after his graduation from the University of New Hampshire in 1980. Looking to learn fermentation and the other necessary skills to pursue this path, he headed out to California for a job at Robert Mondavi Winery, and the cider thing soon went out the window. He caught the wine bug and enrolled at UC Davis to train in enology, then finagled an internship at Bordeaux’s Château Lafite-Rothschild through a family connection (he worked the 1985 harvest as their first American intern). Stints making wine at Napa’s Trefethen and Newton wineries followed, after which he and his wife, Rita, took the plunge and acquired the former Roddis Estate Winery on Diamond Mountain in 1989. Over the years, Von Strasser forged relationships with an assortment of Diamond Mountain growers to supplement the production of his estate vineyard, and has also since relocated his winery to Calistoga and acquired other brands for his portfolio.
One of the key features of Von Strasser’s “DMD” wine—now an assemblage of six different Diamond Mountain vineyard sources—is its mix of all the “Bordeaux” varieties. The 2016 vintage is comprised of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, and 3% Malbec aged in French oak barrels (30% new) for 18 months. In the glass, it’s a near-opaque ruby-black with hints of magenta and copper-pink at the rim. The nose is a booming blast of black and blue fruits, cassis, black cherry, mocha coffee, damp violet, cedar, tobacco, and tar. It has that palate-coating, voluptuous texture that distinguishes great Napa Cabernet, supported by sandy, silty tannins and bright acidity. Its proportions and balance are perfect: it’s powerful, compact wine, not a sweet, over-extracted monolith. With about 30-45 minutes in a decanter it is eminently enjoyable now, but its peak drinking window should start around its 10th birthday. Serve it in large Bordeaux stems and pair it with something that will highlight its mineral, ‘volcanic’ side. Check out the attached tutorial on how to get a perfect “steakhouse crust” on your steak. Should be an epic combination. Cheers!
