History
Brounstein, a Los Angeles pharmaceutical distributor, bought the Diamond Mountain ranch in 1967 and planted from 1968, reportedly with budwood collected from Bordeaux first growths. His decision never to blend the sections together created America's first true single-block Cabernet program. The 1987 Lake bottling became California's first hundred-dollar Cabernet on release. The Brounstein family continues the estate today.
The Site
The ranch covers about 78 acres across two assessed parcels above Diamond Mountain Road, with roughly 25 acres of vines in three fields around the creek amphitheater. The soils change across a footpath: volcanic ash on one flank, iron-rich red clay on the other, fluvial gravel on the bench between.
Vines and Blocks
All Cabernet Sauvignon with small amounts of blending varieties. Volcanic Hill, about 8 acres marketed and the largest kingdom, faces south across the creek on pale ash and tufa from ancient Mount St. Helena eruptions; it yields the longest-lived, most brooding wine. Red Rock Terrace faces north on iron-red clay, dropping steeply toward the creek, and gives the most supple expression. Gravelly Meadow, the smallest working section, sits on a flat prehistoric creek bed of stony, fast-draining gravel. Lake, three quarters of an acre beside the small pond at the western edge, is the coldest spot on the ranch and is bottled alone only in exceptional years. County terrain data confirms the aspects: the Terrace descends over 80 feet northward, the Hill rises as a south-facing dome, the Meadow lies flat at the creek.
The Wines
Four Cabernets from one small ranch, tasted side by side since 1972, remain California's clearest demonstration that soil, not cellar, writes the differences: ash-grown austerity, clay-grown suppleness, gravel-grown structure, and the rare cold-vintage grace of Lake.