95 Wine & Spirits

Rudy von Strasser sold his estate vineyard in 2015, a southwest-facing slope just east of Diamond Creek’s Volcanic Hill, so this will be the last vintage of the Estate Vineyard cabernet. And, as if the wine could share the wistful beauty of a swan song, my notes on the initial taste read “coffee and chocolate in heaven…red currant glow…” That’s not to say the wine isn’t powerful and intense, but it moderates that strength, detailing a stony mineral flavor, with freshness to shift the dark blueberry-skin chewiness of the tannins toward glowing red transparency.