2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Hill

While most wines in this tasting are gorgeous, but young, Diamond Creek's 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Hill comes across as raw and not yet fully formed. There is impressive power and structure in the glass, even if the elements haven't fully come together yet. Some bottles show a slight trace of brett that I do not find overpowering or distracting, but it is there. I am shortening the drinking window a touch, not because I think the wine won't age, but rather because I am afraid the brett may become too overpowering as time passes.

Dark black fruit, iron, smoke, cedar, menthol, tobacco and licorice are some of the many notes that inform the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Volcanic Hill. Plush, rich and explosive, the 2010 impresses for its towering structure and density. Violets, lavender, smoke and licorice wrap into the explosive finish. This is the darkest and most powerful of the Diamond Creek 2010s.

Wonderfully complex aromas of minerals, berries and stones. Black olives. Full body with seamless tannins and length. It goes on for minutes. Like a refined vintage of La Mission Haut-Brion. Needs four or five years to come together.