Diamond Creek Vineyards

Al Brounstein's love of fine wine was sparked by a tasting seminar he took at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an intermittent job at Ridge Vineyards taught him about winegrowing. The Brounsteins bought the land for Diamond Creek on Diamond Mountain, south of Calistoga, in 1967, and Al and Boots Brounstein founded Diamond Creek Vineyards in 1968. Al planted parts of the property in 1968, putting all of his vines on St. George rootstock. According to the Napa Wine Project, Al obtained Cabernet Sauvignon cuttings from two Bordeaux First Growth estates, shipped them to Rosarita Beach in Baja California, and flew them back to the Calistoga airstrip in his own plane. The first commercial vintage was 1972. From 1972 until 1980 the wine was fermented in redwood tanks that had a roof but no walls; the current winery was completed in time for the 1981 harvest. At the 1981 Napa Valley Wine Auction, a case of the 1978 Lake Cabernet Sauvignon, the first vintage of that wine, drew the highest bid, $5,400. Al Brounstein (d. 2006) was succeeded in running the winery by Boots Brounstein (d. 2019), who ran it with her son, Phil Ross.

• Founded 1968 by Al and Boots Brounstein; the land on Diamond Mountain was bought in 1967
• First commercial vintage 1972; the current winery was completed for the 1981 harvest
• 1981 Napa Valley Wine Auction: a case of the 1978 Lake, that wine's first vintage, drew the highest bid, $5,400
• Decanter credits the Brounsteins with California's first all-Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard and the state's first US$100 bottle of wine

In 2020, 52 years after its founding, Diamond Creek was acquired by the Rouzaud family of Maison Louis Roederer. The families met in 1997, when Jean-Claude Rouzaud marked thirty years at the helm of Champagne Louis Roederer with a tasting and dinner at the Paris restaurant Tour D'Argent, where Diamond Creek wines were poured. The sale, for an undisclosed sum, included the land, the winery and stocks. The Rouzaud family are the proprietors of the Roederer Collection, a group of wineries anchored by Champagne Louis Roederer, founded in 1776. At the time of the sale, Roederer's California operations also included Roederer Estate, Domaine Anderson, Scharffenberger Cellars and Merry Edwards. Phil Ross, managing partner and son of the founders, was to stay on for a period of time, and Phil Steinschriber, winemaker since 1991, remained in post along with most employees. Graham Wehmeier took over winemaking in 2020. Nicole Carter is President and Graham Wehmeier is Winemaker. Isidro Guzman, the longest-tenured employee, began working at Diamond Creek in 1981; he is joined by his brother Jose Guzman, Jorge Rodriguez and Guillermo Robles, who work the vines as well as the cellar.

• Acquired in 2020 by the Rouzaud family of Maison Louis Roederer
• Phil Steinschriber: winemaker from 1991
• Nicole Carter, President; Graham Wehmeier, Winemaker
• Isidro Guzman has worked at Diamond Creek since 1981

Diamond Creek sits in the Diamond Mountain appellation of Napa Valley and takes its name from the creek that separates its vineyards from one another. The estate covers eighty acres, twenty of them planted, divided into four vineyards with different soils and microclimates. Warm air flowing in from the northeast and cool air cutting in from the west through a canyon in the Mayacamas range create microclimate variations across the property. Volcanic Hill and Red Rock Terrace sit in the estate's warmer microclimates, Gravelly Meadow and Lake in its cooler ones. Volcanic Hill, planted in 1968, comprises approximately 8 acres of volcanic ash on a south-facing hillside at 530 to 610 feet. Red Rock Terrace, planted in 1968, is a steeply terraced, north-facing vineyard of approximately 7 acres on rocky red soils high in iron, at 530 to 600 feet; a block of nearly 2 acres below the winery still grows from the original 1968 planting. Gravelly Meadow, planted in 1968, comprises approximately 5 acres of pebbly, porous brown soils on a relatively flat site at 550 feet that was once a prehistoric riverbed. Lake, planted in 1972, is a 3/4 acre dry-farmed vineyard on loose gravelly soil at the western edge of the property, at 600 feet; it is the smallest and coolest vineyard on the estate. Gravelly Meadow and Red Rock Terrace are also dry farmed.

• Volcanic Hill: approximately 8 acres, volcanic ash, south-facing, planted 1968
• Red Rock Terrace: approximately 7 acres, rocky red soils high in iron, north-facing, planted 1968
• Gravelly Meadow: approximately 5 acres, pebbly porous brown soils, relatively flat, planted 1968
• Lake: 3/4 acre, loose gravelly soil, dry farmed, planted 1972

Diamond Creek bottles a single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon from each of Volcanic Hill, Red Rock Terrace and Gravelly Meadow, and from Lake in exceptional years. Al Brounstein first released his three Cabernets, Volcanic Hill, Gravelly Meadow and Red Rock Terrace, in the early 1970s. When a wine shop owner suggested blending them, he replied: "As soon as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti blends La Tâche and Richebourg into Romanée-Conti, I'll blend my three vineyards into one." Lake has been bottled in fewer than half of the vintages; in other years its grapes have been blended into Gravelly Meadow. The Lake grapes are typically harvested more than a month from the beginning of the harvest. The wines are not always pure Cabernet Sauvignon: the 2022 Red Rock Terrace is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Malbec and 6% Petit Verdot. A Three Vineyard Blend was produced in 2019, with a small amount planned each year from 2021; the 2022 is 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Merlot and 5% Malbec. MicroCLIMATE is a very limited bottling made when a singular expression stands out; Microclimate 3, from the uppermost parts of Volcanic Hill, was the estate's only wine bottled in 2020, the year of the Glass Fire. Harvest can run up to six weeks, with grapes picked as they ripen. As of October 2026, current release wines are priced at $500 per bottle.

• Single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons: Volcanic Hill, Red Rock Terrace, Gravelly Meadow and, in exceptional years, Lake
• Lake has been bottled in fewer than half of the vintages; in other years its grapes have gone into Gravelly Meadow
• Three Vineyard Blend first produced in 2019
• Microclimate 3 was the only wine bottled in 2020, the year of the Glass Fire

Diamond Creek describes its aim as "to maintain this purity of place and enhance it as we can, allowing the land to continue to speak for itself." Winemaker Graham Wehmeier: "There is nothing to radically change here." In the estate's own descriptions, Volcanic Hill is a full-bodied Cabernet with ripe berry fruit, smoky richness and scented earth; Red Rock Terrace often shows dark cherry and black currant flavors with velvety tannins and notes of tea, iron and savory dried herbs; Gravelly Meadow often evokes freshly tilled earth, currant, plum and ripe blackberry with a mineral, persistent finish; and Lake shows red, black plum and cassis flavors with fine tannins and a thread of acidity.

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/, https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/our-story/, https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/al-and-boots-an-american-dream/, https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/our-approach/, https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/estate-map/, https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/volcanic-hill/, https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/red-rock-terrace/, https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/gravelly-meadow/, https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/lake/, https://diamondcreekvineyards.com/visit/. Secondary sources: Decanter (Richard Woodard, https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/roederer-diamond-creek-vineyards-434701/), Wine Spectator (https://www.winespectator.com/articles/roederer-champagne-owners-buy-napa-s-diamond-creek) and The Napa Wine Project (https://www.napawineproject.com/diamond-creek-vineyards/). Last verified 2026-10-14. Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs.