2015 Premiere Napa Valley Auction Von Strasser Winery Sori Bricco Red

Premiere Napa Valley is an annual barrel tasting and wine auction open only to the wine and beverage trade. Held each February in St. Helena, Calif., the auction is sponsored by Napa Valley Vintners, a professional association of 250 Napa Valley wineries. Proceeds from the auction support the organization’s educational and other programs. The auction is an important event in the wine industry because members make special cuvées for the auction. Winemakers make a barrel or less of their auction cuvées. Premiere Napa Valley wines, which are Cabernet Sauvignons or other red varietals, are not widely available to the public. Restaurateurs and retailers who purchase these cuvées market them as the “best of the best.” As part of our commitment to bringing rare and fine wines to our customers, WineBid.com participates in the Premiere Napa Valley auction and each year purchases a cuvée which we offer exclusively through our auctions.

Diamond Mountain District AVA is in the Mayacamas Mountains at the northwestern end of Napa Valley. The appellation is relatively high and the entire district is more than 400 feet above sea level. Some vineyards are as high as 2,200 feet above sea level. Because of their altitude, Diamond Mountain vineyards experience warmer days but colder nights than vineyards on the valley floor. Once volcanic soil, the terrain in the appellation has over time become less fertile, making grape growing particularly challenging. Nevertheless the district has attracted wine producers for more than a century. There are 500 vineyard acres out of a total of 5,000 acres. Among the highly regarded wineries here are Lokoya Winery, Diamond Creek Vineyards and Schramsberg Vineyards. Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are generally firmly structured, rich and quite tannic. Chardonnay is full-bodied with apple and peach aromas and firm acidity.

Winemaker Rudy von Strasser worked for Robert Mondavi Winery, Trefethen and Newton Vineyard before starting his own Diamond Mountain winery in 1990. Here are von Strasser’s production and tasting notes for this wine: "Since 1999, von Strasser has created single-vineyard bottling from the Sori Bricco Vineyard. In most years, the blend uses a high percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon and is thus labelled as such. However, Sori Bricco Vineyard features other grape varieties that add to the complexity of the blend: Merlot with an unparalleled density; inky-dark Petit Verdot, full of blueberry-syrup aromas; and spectacularly concentrated Malbec. This blend goes outside of the Cabernet Sauvignon-box to create a truly unique wine, destined for a long life in your cellar and to wow those lucky enough to share the bottle.”

Proprietary red blend