Professional Ratings

• 100 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  From the biggest of the three vineyards, the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Hill comes from pure volcanic, iron-rich, rocky white tufa of volcanic origin. Marginally speaking, this is bluer and blacker than the Red Rock Terrace or Gravelly Meadow. A tour de force of perfection, this wine offers up crème de cassis, blueberry liqueur, licorice, earth, truffle and graphite. It displays spectacular richness, magnificent balance and texture, and a long, incredibly pure finish of close to a minute. This remarkable, full-bodied elixir should drink beautifully for another 30+ years, if not longer.
• 100 Wine & Spirits
  Initially used for storage, oak barrels, and their transformational qualities, have long been a matter of close study by winegrowers. In the New World, oak has become a flavoring agent, especially when fruit from young cabernet vines is used with winemaking strategies adopted from Bordeaux’s Left Bank. In fact, the premier cru wines of the Médoc—and the grands crus of the Côte de Nuits—have an unparalleled ability to eat new oak, so that rather than genericizing the wine, making it fat and delicious, time in new oak barrels adds a frame to the wine, becoming almost an invisible element of the taste. This is something that is rare, both in the New World and the Old: In 35 years of blind tastings, I have never come across a California cabernet that handles oak as graciously as this vintage of Diamond Creek’s Volcanic Hill. In recent vintages, winemaker Phil Steinschriber has adopted the somewhat controversial practice of introducing a second round of new oak barrels during the aging of his cabernets. He does it selectively, and in 2013, it may have helped to both tame the wine and frame it for long aging. Volcanic Hill starts out with a trumpet blare of black cherry flavor, a deep blue savor to the fruit, an explosive richness that’s transformed into silken delicacy by its time in oak, in the way that a young Charmes-Chambertin might feel in a great vintage. This vineyard, on a south-facing slope of white volcanic ash, often produces the most powerful of Diamond Creek’s wines. As I tasted this wine over the course of several days, there was a moment in the chaos of a young Napa Valley Cabernet when it reached the sublime.
• 100 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  What happens when one tastes and gives a wine 100 points? I am not sure how to explain it— it just feels so good. When I tasted the incredible 2013 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill Cabernet Sauvignon recently, my senses became elevated and my knees nearly buckled. Proprietor Boots Brounstein—she and her late husband, Al, founded the winery in 1968—had just poured me a taste amongst a crowd of other wine professionals. This wine was young and seamless. As the wine's beautiful black fruit aromas gently rose from the sides of the glass, I could feel the vineyard's energy reaching out for me. I have tasted many vintages of Volcanic Hill—some have been really great, but this one is special. I even asked for a second pour—something I rarely do at these kinds of tastings. (Tasted: August 22, 2016, San Francisco, CA)
• 95 Decanter
  The most virile and brooding of Diamond Creek's cuvées, a tight-knit bouquet of dark fruit and incense leads into a seriously structured and powerful wine, underpinned by fresh acids and crisp tannins. The Volcanic Hill, which the late, great Al Brounstein liked to compare to Château Latour, always takes the longest to open up.
• 93 James Suckling

  Lots of currants and hints of plums and flowers. Complex and beautiful with a real sense of earth and fresh sage. Full body with crushed stone and very ripe fruit. Minerals. Flavorful. High toned. A blend of 78% cabernet sauvignon, 9% malbec, 8% merlot, 4% petit verdot and 1% cabernet franc.