Country: | United States |
Region: | California |
Winery: | Chateau Diana Winery |
Grape Type: | Chardonnay |
Vintage: | 2016 |
Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
There are wonderful aromas of summer-ripe peaches with tropical fruits and flowers. The silky-smooth flavors are reminiscent of baked apples and toasty vanilla bean. The lively acidity makes this an extremely well-balanced Chardonnay. The finish is long and fruity, with an interesting hint of hazelnuts. This wine’s overall taste profiles is creamy with apricots and lemons.
The Black Oak Cabernet Sauvignon is garnet red in color, refreshing and inviting to the palate. The wine’s aromas are layered with rich plum notes and a warm cedar component. The ripe, dark cherry flavors, are reminiscent of decadent blackberries with a nice sprinkling of dried herbs. With a mellow tannin structure, this medium-bodied wine is delicious and well-integrated.
Black Oak Pinot Noir is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
The Black Oak Pinot Noir is a glowing example of what they do best in Puglia, make great wine. Deep ruby in color with a lovely bouquet of sweet spices, even a dusting of cinnamon and nutmeg. The flavors are flowing with ripe black cherry. This medium-bodied wine with its fresh acidity will complement many meal selections.
The Black Oak White Zinfandel is a wonderful warm weather sipper. This is sometimes called our ‘hammock wine’ for lazy days by the river.
Lovely perfume aromas that remind one of ripe melons, honeysuckle in summer, and cherry blossoms in spring. The flavors are bright and delicately sweet, with a very good balance of fresh acidity that lightens up the complex texture. The succulent flavors are of juicy tangerine, white peaches and just picked strawberries. All this with an additional hint of lemon-lime and sass that make this a very approachable and fun wine selection.
Inglenook Rubicon is made from 93% Cabernet Sauvignon 7% Cabernet Franc.
Since its inaugural vintage in 1978, Rubicon has been the Estate's premier red wine, reflecting the soul of the property and expressing Francis Coppola's wish to create a Bordeaux-styled grand wine, that is, "a wine that can please contemporary taste, but with a historical aspect [that defines] our vineyards at their zenith."
Rubicon was named after the small river crossed by Julius Caesar in 49 B.C., declaring his intention to gain control of Rome, thereby launching a civil war among opposing factions. Over time the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" has come to signify any irreversible action with revolutionary intent or the outcome of which holds great risk. True to its uncommon depth, Inglenook's Rubicon continues to be a testament to the finely tuned rendering of a risk well-taken.
2016:
After four years of drought, a winter with average rainfall was welcome, as it provided ample soil moisture for a strong start to the 2016 growing season. Average late-spring temperatures and limited precipitation minimized the risk of frost during mid-May bloom, ensuring average yields. June closed with a heat spell, slowing vine canopy growth at the ideal time. Harvest of the blocks contributing to the 2016 Inglenook Rubicon blend occurred under optimum conditions from September 6th through September 27th.
Ideal harvest conditions endowed the 2016 Rubicon with the three elements associated with a truly great wine from the Rutherford appellation: complexity, balance, and elegance. The aromas are intense and focused with top notes of creamy, sweet vanilla, and black licorice wound around a core of exquisitely ripe black cherry and crème de cassis. This refinement extends directly to the palate, where the wine is both broad and deep with sensuous, silky tannins. Supremely balanced in terms of both opulence and complexity, ripe black fruits and an ultra-smooth texture provide an impressive crescendo to a very long finish.
Review:
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Rubicon is a wine of total precision and class. Translucent and energetic, with distinctly mid-weight structure, the 2016 is a wine of reserve, tension and breeding. Shy at first, the 2016 has a lot to offer, but it needs a number of years in bottle to be at its most expressive. Cedar, tobacco, licorice and wild cherry add the closing nuances.
- Antonio Galloni 97 Points
Jip Jip Rocks Chardonnay 2014 is made from 100 percent unoaked Chardonnay.
Light yellow with a pale straw hue. A classic nose of lemon, fresh stonefruit and melon. The palate is clean and fresh with mineral characters underpinning ripe pineapple and lime flavours. This wine will age beautifully over the next 4-5 years.
Winemaking report: Gentle pressing and free run juices create the base of this wine. Traditionally Jip Jip Rocks Chardonnay is a 2/3 blend fermented and matured in stainless steel and 1/3 fermented in stainless steel, which receives extended lees contact to add texture and complexity to the palate.
There are wonderful aromas of summer-ripe peaches with tropical fruits and flowers. The silky-smooth flavors are reminiscent of baked apples and toasty vanilla bean. The lively acidity makes this an extremely well-balanced Chardonnay. The finish is long and fruity, with an interesting hint of hazelnuts. This wine’s overall taste profiles is creamy with apricots and lemons.
The Chateau Diana Winery, located in Sonoma County, CA, was founded 30 years ago when Tom and Diane Manning moved from New York to California to pursue their dream of providing high quality California wines for the East coast. Over the course of 30 years, the Chateau Diana Winery has developed a specialty in producing low alcohol wines. Today, the winery is owned by siblings Corey and Dawn (Manning) where they follow the traditions and values their parents adopted when they first began operations.
Date Founded: 1981
The winery was named after Diane Manning, the mother of brother and sister Dawn and Corey. Tom and Diane Manning started the winery in 1981 on land bought from the former Le Baron Ranch.
Chateau Diana Winery was founded in 1981, but its beginnings were crafted along a career path that would take Tom Manning, and later, his young family on a coast-to-coast journey.
Tom was orphaned as a child and raised by his aunt. Though he never finished high school, he was a hard worker from the age of 14. Sales seemed to come natural to Tom and he moved through the sales ranks of various companies. Eventually, he found a natural fit within the wine industry.
With his young wife Diane and his expanding family, Tom lived in various states, eventually settling in beautiful Northern California. Residing first in San Francisco, Tom was lucky to be involved in the early days of a rapidly growing wine retailing group, Trader Joe’s. The owner personally selected Tom to develop Negociant Wine Brands.
With the rapid sales and success that Tom enjoyed, he seized the opportunity to open his own winery facility in 1981. Affectionately named after his wife, Chateau Diana was born in Healdsburg, Ca. Craig, their eldest son, joined Tom and Diane in this exciting venture. Over the next two years, the Mannings developed new wines within the Chateau Diana brand while also looking for a more permanent home for their winery.
In 1983, a dream was realized with the purchase of the LeBaron Ranch encompassing 60 acres in the Dry Creek Valley. 30 years later, the Manning family honors the LeBaron’s legacy of maintaining a family-owned winery. The business continued to grow with a sales office in Southern California, whom their daughter Dawn runs herself. In 1991, another son Corey joined his sister in the family business.
The period between 1999 and 2001 held many changes for Chateau Diana and the Manning family, saddest of which was the unexpected loss of winemaker, Craig Manning. The continued growth of the business within this family struggle, including necessary expansions to the winery facility, was shouldered by Dawn, Corey, and Craig’s Wife, Donna. Their dedication and commitment to hard work is a deep family conviction and is key to the accomplishments at Chateau Diana. When walking the grounds of Chateau Diana you can feel the love and care Craig Manning put into the winery before his passing. He is gone but never forgotten.
Shaw + Smith M3 Chardonnay is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
Aiming for elegance, restraint and the ability to age, acid is bright and there’s generosity of flavor. Typically it shows white flowers, citrus, and nectarine notes. The 2021 vintage was one of the best on record. Ripe and healthy fruit resulted in a beautifully balanced M3, with great flavors, and fresh acidity right through to the long finish.
Review:
Restrained, elegant and complex, with no hint of tropical fruit but relevant citrus and white fruit notes in this cool-climate Chardonnay. Oak integration is stunning and the wine shows personality, vibrancy, mouthwatering acidity and a precise, long finish.
-Decanter 96 Points
Made from 60 years old Cabernet Sauvignon vines in organic farming conversion, the cuvee Big Boss is also a tribute to all the winegrowers who are dedicated with love and passion to their wines and terroirs. This is a very charming wine with notes of red fruits and blackcurrant.