Diamond Creek Reboot, Plus Reinterpreting Change in Champagne

The 2022 vintage in Napa Valley has drawn mixed reactions from winemakers and critics alike, but it’s not all doom and gloom, despite the “heat dome” of that year, when temperatures reached as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius) at harvest time.

There are plenty of 2022 gems from Napa’s mountain vineyards that show balance, freshness and site expression, as Associate Editor Ryan Montgomery found when he tasted through the 2022 releases from one of Napa’s most historic estates – Diamond Creek – with winemaker Graham Wehmeier, who shrugged off the heat of the year, saying he "farms in a cool and elevated pocket”

Since 1968, Diamond Creek has bottled single-vineyard cabernet sauvignons from three of its distinct soils – Gravelly Meadow, Red Rock Terrace and Volcanic Hill. Owned by the Louis Roederer Champagne House, which took over in 2020 following the passing of Diamond Creek's founder, Boots Brounstein, the estate continues to uphold its reputation for ageworthy, site-specific and stylistic wines of distinction.

The Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Gravelly Meadow 2022 marks the final bottling from this legendary vineyard before replanting, from vines originally sown in 1968. It shows aromas of dark fruit, spices, crushed stones, dried herbs, bay leaf and leather. The palate is structured, refined and focused, with a balanced, finely woven texture that will age gracefully for many years to come. It’s a fitting close to one of Napa’s great vineyard eras.

Equally compelling is the Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Red Rock Terrace 2022, made from the last of the original 1968 plantings – a field blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc. It’s densely packed yet fresh, with aromas of black currant, blood plum, bay leaf, graphite and crushed stones. The palate shows seamless integration and subtle power, framed by bright acidity and fine, chalky tannins. It's a wine of purity and lift, promising long life ahead.

The Diamond Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Volcanic Hill 2022 completes the trio with its perfume and structure – polished yet firm. Aromas of red and black currants, graphite, bay leaf, dried rose and earth lead into a tightly wound palate with fine acidity and tannins that are soft yet mouthwatering. Built for the long haul, it’s a wine that will slowly reveal its depth over decades.

These wines are all reminders that despite 2022 being a vintage of contrasts in Napa Valley, Diamond Creek continues to stand apart for its restraint, site expression and classical sensibility.

Reinterpreting Change in Champagne 

From a commercial standpoint, most Champagne houses compete on the strength of their cuvees maison – classic, reassuring blends designed to embody a maison style. Yet in the race for critical acclaim, the spotlight shifts toward limited selections, crus, clos and special cuvees – wines that stand out for originality, personality, and character.

That was the prevailing impression Senior Editor Aldo Fiordelli had during his recent journey through Champagne, from the Montagne de Reims to the Cote des Bar, where the most compelling narrative today is how growers and chefs de cave are reinterpreting change.

One of the most illuminating observations came from Odilon de Varine, the chef de cave at Gosset, who, reflecting on challenging vintages like 2015 and 2012, remarked that “it is now wiser to favor maturation over maturity.”

Gosset recently unveiled a new cuvée, a zero dosage. Unlike the house’s Grand Réserve, which spends four years on the lees, the zero dosage ages for a full decade – one or two years as a still wine, then the rest on its lees during bottle fermentation.

“The dosage has been steadily decreasing over the past 20 or 30 years” de Varine explained. “Our Bruts are already between four and five grams per liter of sugar, so it made sense to create a non-dosé wine. The key difference lies in the time between bottling and release – the goal isn’t a sharp or aggressive wine, but one that’s taut and balanced.”

Consistency, he added, means changing the sourcing villages of grapes: “We no longer buy fruit from Chatillon-sur-Marne,” he said. “One of the most promising villages today is Passy-sur-Marne – but don’t write that down or my colleagues will find out!”

That terroir remains the guiding light for Champagne’s best producers is something Pascal Agrapart emphasizes as well. Tasting in his cellar, he highlighted the pinosity of chardonnay from the Montagne de Reims. And Avize is also gaining renewed attention – not that it ever lacked prestige – as its higher clay content yields greater generosity, structure and concentration, emphasizing minerality through contrast, unlike the more linear and purely mineral Mesnil.

Originality and character reach remarkable heights in Landreville, in the Aube, where Cedric Bouchard of Roses de Jeanne has become a reference for uncompromising purity. His wines are re-fermented exclusively with sugar and yeasts derived from his own grapes – a radical gesture of integrity.

“My idea,” he explains, “is that on the palate you should taste the wine first, and then the bubbles – not the other way around.” Each Champagne comes from a single cru and is disgorged simultaneously, allowing the wine’s evolution to speak for itself. His approach brings out exceptional finesse and complexity in pinot noir.

Some of the most compelling wines Aldo tasted during his visit to Champagne included several releases making their market debut. For one, the Gosset Champagne Zero Dosage is a wine of an intense mineral style, showing fresh yet restrained strawberries, lemon peel, green apples, wax and a whiff of pastry. The Alfred Gratien Champagne Clos le Village 2018 shows restrained style that’s subtle on the nose, with citrus, lemon zest, lemon oil, chalk and a hint of fresh red apples, while the Agrapart & Fils Champagne Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Avizoise Brut Nature 2019 is an austere wine with lime zest, chalk and lemon leaves on the nose. It needs time in the glass to become gentler, with lemon curd and apple flavors.

Finally, the Roses de Jeanne Champagne Les Ursules 2021 shows aromas of fresh strawberries, leaves, minerals, stones, chalk, violets and a hint of butter. It's savory on the palate, with refreshing acidity, superfine bubbles and a long finish of strawberries, chalk and minerals. This 100 percent pinot noir is a gem of purity.

Riesling Masterclass

Senior Editor Stuart Pigott was in the Mosel Valley over the past week to catch up with some of the leading producers who bottle late. He tasted some amazing wines, but the most exciting of these were produced in tiny quantities and are in great demand. That means that even Stuart will struggle, and possibly fail, to get even a single bottle to put in his cellar!

That certainly applies to the perfect-scoring Julian Haart Riesling Mosel Wintricher Ohligsberg Kabinett (White Label) 2024, an off-dry wine that’s paradoxically extremely light in body yet extraordinarily deep and complete in flavor.

Finding any wine from husband-and-wife team Julian and Nadine Haart will be difficult because they pick, vinify and bottle just about every parcel of vines they have separately, and the result is sometimes just a few hundred bottles and at best just over a thousand. For example, the almost perfect Julian Haart Riesling Mosel Wintricher Ohlisgberg Kabinett Wurzelecht 2024 comes from a different parcel of vines – at 120 years of age even older than the vines behind the White Label bottling. It is also incredibly steely and salty and has a totally different flavor profile.

That vine age is something they have in common with the Carl Loewen Riesling Mosel 1896 (Anthracite Label) 2024, which is from a plot planted in 1896 in the Maximiner Herrenberg site of Longuich. It is incredibly concentrated but has extremely subtle aromas of peaches, wildflowers and berries.

There’s more of this one to go around, but given global demand it, too, will be a challenge to hunt down.

The other perfect wine Stuart tasted was the dry Markus Molitor Riesling Mosel Erdener PrälatAuslese *** (White Cap) 2024, a giant of ripeness (mango!) and concentration with unbelievable refinement. It’s a dry Mosel masterpiece with the concentration of a great Grand Cru white Burgundy but with riesling aromas. It’s also more expensive than the above wines.

The Markus Molitor range is huge. Stuart tasted 50 wines, but even that wasn’t all of them. We recommend you scroll down and check out the tasting notes for them, because many are moderate in price for their excellent quality. It’s impossible to go through this embarrassment of riches individually here.

With the Markus Molitor wines it’s important to understand that wines with a White Cap are dry, those with a Green Cap are medium-dry and those with a Gold Cap are frankly sweet. Auslese and BA with a Gold Cap are dessert wines.

There are some incredible values from other producers, too, like the Carl Loewen Riesling Mosel Alte Reben Trocken 2024, which has incredible mineral intensity for what is a de factor village wine, with a friendly price to go with it.

Almost as amazing is the dry Immich-Batterieberg Riesling Mosel Escheburg 2024. With its fascinating aromas of candied orange, dried flowers and flint it is simultaneously compact and vibrant. It is hot on the heels of this producer’s sought-after, single-vineyard bottlings, of which the Immich-Batterieberg Riesling Mosel Zeppwingert 2024 is the most breathtaking.

Stuart also encountered several important innovations. Schloss Lieser has been on a roll since Thomas Haag took over this historic estate in 1992 and he just released the great dry Schloss Lieser Riesling Mosel Domprobst GG Réserve 2019, which has balsamic complexity along with deep stone fruit character. It’s the first vintage of this new wine.

Another example of this is the Nik Weiss Riesling Mosel Finale 2023. Although not quite analytically dry, it is a masterpiece of cool and silky elegance. It comes from a single parcel in the Saarfeilser site on the Saar called Finale. For Stuart, it is one of the stars of the new releases that Nik Weis crafted with winemaker Kai Hausen.

– Ryan Montgomery, Aldo Fiordelli and Stuart Pigott contributed reporting.

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the past week by James Suckling and the other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports.

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.