Phil Steinschriber served as vineyard manager and winemaker at Diamond Creek from 1991 to the beginning of 2021, when Graham Wehmeier assumed the role of winemaker. Steinschriber made this in 2009, which I tasted at the winery with Wehmeier in March of 2023. At 14 years of age, the wine was remarkably bright, bearing the perfumed intensity of the 2009 vintage in a heady mix of red and black fruit laced with tobacco spices, earth, and florals. And impressive restraint, which only began to open on the palate with a bit of time. Full-bodied with gracious black cherry and blackberry fruit notes intermixed with tobacco spices, earth, black liquorice, and black olive. This wine builds momentum on the palate, and once you’ve sensed all those savoury spices, it surprises you with emerging mineral depth and harmonious tones of blue fruit and crushed wildflowers before a cascade of loamy earth leaves you wanting more and more. Aged 20 months in French oak comprised 78.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12.4% Merlot, 6.6% Petite Verdot, and 2.5% Cabernet Franc. Gravelly Meadow is a 2ha estate vineyard on Diamond Mountain, today owned by the Rouzaud family of Maison Louis Roederer. (Drink between 2023-2045) (JC)