Diamond Creek Red Rock Terrace Cabernet Sauvignon 2012

Professional Ratings

• 99 James Suckling
  Impressive aromas of clay, dust and blueberries. Lots of blackcurrants, too. Pure fruit. Full body, velvety and soft cashmere-textured tannins. It’s very structured. Need at least five to six years to come together but a fabulous wine. Greatest Red Rock ever?
• 97 Connoisseurs' Guide
  The three Diamond Creek 2012s stand with the best Cabernets we have yet tasted from a vintage marked by an absolute bounty of outstanding wines, and, picking one or the other as a favorite is to invite contemplative weighing of fairly small differences. This one from the Red Rock Terrace gets the nod for its ever so slightly greater fruity strength and marginally better sense of overall polish. It shares with its mates the quiet strength and exemplary balance that makes all three eminently ageworthy, and, if truth be told, it is only the slightly more perfect pea in the Diamond Creek pod.
• 96 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Red Rock Terrace, from a seven-acre vineyard compared to the eight acres of Volcanic Hill, exhibits a saturated purple color, gorgeous crème de cassis and blueberry notes, underlying minerality, stunning full-bodied opulence, sweet tannin and, again, great concentration and balance. This is another 25- to 30-year wine that will hit its peak in about a decade. Nevertheless, it’s accessible already.
• 96 Wine & Spirits
  Sexy cabernet. That may sound like a contradiction in terms, but Red Rock manages to find exotic bliss within the gravitas of cabernet’s structure. Farmed on a north-facing, terraced vineyard of iron-rich, rocky soil, this 2012 is immediately luscious and delicious, holding its cool power in a wild, gamey savor. The sophisticated, earthy flavors last for minutes, bringing the Mayacamas mountains into the glass. Humming with the energy of the vintage, this is a great tribute to Al Brounstein, the man who planted the original vines on the site, many of them still thriving today.
• 93 Wine Enthusiast
  Soft and smooth in crisp red fruit, this block-designation has a nutty component around a thickness of tannin that suggests further aging. Medium bodied and graceful, it offers pronounced minerality and an almost dusty taste of rock itself. Cellar through 2022. Cellar Selection.