1996 Wine

Bancroft Ranch Merlot has a quality I can only describe as all-around richness. Unlike some Merlots I've tasted, the wine from Bancroft has no hole in the middle. It delivers a consistent message from the first waft of its... Read More

Volcanic Hill is comprised of 8 acres of south facing hillside vineyard. It is the warmest of all our micro-climates. The color of the soil is gray, and the consistency is that of fluffy, volcanic ash, originally deposited from... Read More

The second coolest microclimate is Diamond Creek's five-acre Gravelly Meadow vineyard. Originally a prehistoric river bed, this stony, gravelly soil drains rapidly and the vines struggle for moisture.

Gravelly Meadow is Diamond... Read More

Sour cherry notes mar an otherwise good but incomplete effort.—Robert Mondavi vertical