Winemaker Notes
This wine opens with elevated blackberry and fragrant purple floral notes. The mouthfeel has sweet tobacco leaf punctuated with spice notes and touches of minerality that resolve into a rich elegant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
Coming from the Diamond Mountain region of the Valley and all varietal, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District has a saturated purple hue as well as a wild nose of blackcurrants, licorice, roasted herbs, and chocolate. It's a big, full-bodied, richly textured and concentrated effort that's well worth your time and money. It should have at least two decades of overall longevity, if not more.
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Decanter
Heady blackberry fruits, candied violets, toffee, and toasty cedarwood with hints of caramel all pave the way for this well-endowed, rather opulent Diamond Mountain Cabernet. For all its youthful exuberance on the nose, it reveals a more tamed version of itself on the medium-bodied palate. It settles into a fresh, lifted, pointed wine redolent of black cherry, spiced plums, black currants, cassis and graphite minerality. Fine-grained tannins are abundant, with a chocolaty quality, and those candied violets reemerge on the extended finish. Founded in 1973, Conn Creek Winery is situated on the eastern side of Napa Valley, just off the Silverado Trail. Best known for its Bordeaux-styled wines, Elizabeth DeLouise-Gant has been winemaker since 2017. Previously, she worked at Beaulieu Vineyard, Tamber Bey, and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Above the town of St. Helena on the eastern slopes of the Mayacamas Mountains sits the Spring Mountain District.
A dynamic region, its vineyards, cut by numerous springs and streams, vary in elevation, slope and aspect. Soils differ throughout with over 20 distinct types inside of the 8,600 acres that define the appellation. Within that area, only about 1,000 are planted to vineyards. Predominantly farmed by small, independent producers, the region currently has just over 30 wineries.
During the growing season, late afternoon Pacific Ocean breezes reach the Spring Mountain vineyards, which sit at between 400 and 1,200 feet. Daytime temperatures during mid summer and early fall remain slightly cooler than those of the valley floor.
Spring Mountain soils—volcanic matter and sedimentary rock—create intense but balanced reds with lush and delicate tannins. The area excels with Bordeaux varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot and in some cooler spots, Chardonnay.