🏷️ Lot Overview
Region: Diamond Mountain
Vintage: 2023
Blend: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
ChatGPT Original Source Guess: Likely Lokoya or Vineyard 7 & 8
Wine Berserkers Guess: Diamond Mountain Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
Alcohol: 14.8%
Oak Aging: ~70% New French Oak
Cam Price: $24.92 ($299/case)
Retail Estimate: $150–$300
Drink Window: Late 2026–2042+
🍷 Cameron’s Release Notes
Email
Funny how things align… I saw a request this morning on the Berserker board for a Mountain Cabernet. As it happens, we got this Diamond Mountain Cabernet in the barn on Monday and I sat down with my winemaker yesterday to see if we needed to do any blending. Nope, just bottle it up, it’s good to go. Boom.
Not a lot can be said about the winery, a legendary producer on Diamond Mountain with low-to-mid three-figure price points for even their lowest end offering. I’m prevented from saying much more, so I’ll let your imagination take it from there.
The wine is, in a word, exquisite.
Chiseled from the terraces of Diamond Mountain, it’s a powerful yet delicious wine made with Swiss watchmaking precision. Dark, inky, ethereal with incredible structure and balance, it is the epitome of the appellation.
Opaque in the glass. The bouquet is chock full of iron, mineral-infused red rock and violets tightly enmeshed with blackcurrant, hints of cedar, anise, graphite, and scorched earth. Raspberry and mocha peek through with air. Surprisingly smooth on entry it is nevertheless tightly wound around a robust framework of black and red fruit-flecked tannins and crushed red rock minerality framed with chocolatey oak in a long, sweeping finish. Full-bodied yet supremely elegantly structured, this formidable Diamond Mountain Cabernet is seamless, precise, and exquisitely balanced.
Just a baby now but surprisingly approachable given the picture-perfect 2023 vintage—this should be a no-brainer for any Mountain Cabernet connoisseur.
Tasting Notes
Not a lot can be said about the winery, a legendary producer on Diamond Mountain with low-to-mid three-figure price points for even their lowest-end offering. I’m prevented from saying much more, so I’ll let your imagination take it from there.
The wine is, in a word, exquisite.
Chiseled from the terraces of Diamond Mountain, it’s a powerful yet delicious wine made with Swiss watchmaking precision. Dark, inky, ethereal with incredible structure and balance, it is the epitome of the appellation.
Opaque in the glass. The bouquet is chock full of iron, mineral-infused red rock and violets tightly enmeshed with blackcurrant, hints of cedar, anise, graphite, and scorched earth. Raspberry and mocha peek through with air. Surprisingly smooth on entry it is nevertheless tightly wound around a robust framework of black and red fruit-flecked tannins and crushed red rock minerality framed with chocolatey oak in a long, sweeping finish. Full-bodied yet supremely elegantly structured, this formidable Diamond Mountain Cabernet is seamless, precise, and exquisitely balanced.
100% Diamond Mountain
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
~70% new French oak
14.8% alc.
~150 cases
Bottling August 2025
🧠ChatGPT says:
🔍 Source Guess: Likely Lokoya or Vineyard 7 & 8
🎯 Rationale:
- Cam emphasizes the producer is “legendary,” on Diamond Mountain, and their lowest-end bottling starts in the “low-to-mid three figures” — this immediately narrows the field to ultra-premium, estate-focused houses like Lokoya, Vineyard 7 & 8, and potentially Schramsberg’s still wine arm or Wallis Family.
- Lokoya’s Diamond Mountain Cabernet fits the profile perfectly:
→ Flagship-level wine
→ Frequently receives 98–100pt scores
→ Typically sells in the $300–$400 range
→ Known for a deep, mineral, red-rock-and-violet-laced mountain Cab style - Vineyard 7 & 8 is another high-end candidate with a reputation for structured, elegant Diamond Mountain Cabs that hover in the $200–$250 range.
- “Swiss watchmaking precision,” “chiseled,” and “scorched earth” descriptors fit the Lokoya stylistic DNA — powerful, polished, and etched with tension.
- 14.8% alcohol and ~70% new oak are hallmarks of mountain fruit Cabernets made in a modern Napa luxury style.
- Cam’s language (“no blending needed,” “exquisite,” “let your imagination take it from there”) points toward a fully finished, flagship-tier wine, not just excess barrels — strongly suggesting a top-end bottling that was diverted from market due to economic or inventory shifts.
âś… Conclusion:
All signs point toward Lokoya or Vineyard 7 & 8 as the most likely original sources, with Lokoya slightly ahead based on pricing, style, and Cam’s coded reverence.
⏳ Drink Window
- Early Enjoyment: Late 2026 (post-bottle shock), though already approachable for mountain Cab.
- Peak Drinking: 2028–2036, when tannins integrate and mineral/earth tones balance plush fruit.
- Hold Potential: Through 2042+, with development into savory graphite, cedar, and tertiary notes.
⏳ Drink Window: 2026–2042+ (peak 2028–2036)
🧑‍🤝‍🧑🍷 Wine Berserkers Guess: Diamond Mountain Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon