This has so much rich earth and minerality, it’s like a journey deep into a mine. It’s noted the vines were planted in 1970, and the wine does have that old-vine concentration of fruit in the form of massively intense blackberries. Then there’s the smoky new oak, which adds such a lusciously sweet jacket of buttered toast. Tannic and tight in the way of Diamond Mountain Cabernets, this should begin to come into its own after 2016. — (10/1/2012) —95

This has been one of Von Strasser’s easier, more accessible Cabs, despite its origins on Diamond Mountain, which usually produces notoriously hard tannins. The ’08, like the ’07, is soft and sweet in blackberry and toasted oak flavors. Drink it over the next six years.——S.H.(11/1/2011)—— 89

One of the winery’s more accessibly forward Cabs, the Spaulding is rich in blackberry and cherry pie, chocolate and caramelized oak flavors. It’s delicious, if a little direct. Drink now–2013.——S.H.(11/1/2010)—— 89