Remembering Al Brounstein

by Dan Rhodes

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Spectrum recently hosted an all-California gala at Charlie Palmer restaurant in Orange County featuring any number of extraordinary “Old-School” Napa classics of yesteryear. It was a superb tasting with any number of delightful efforts but, to me, the wines that really stood out were the Diamond Creek wines. We tasted “Gravelly Meadow” 1991, “Volcanic Hill” 1991 and “Gravelly Meadow” 1987.

Old School California Pop-Up Tasting @ Charlie Palmer Costa Mesa

In my former retail life, I got to taste once or twice with Al on a couple of his whirlwind sales tours through the Southland. Upon enjoying these spectacular efforts, my thoughts went back to those days and I thought to myself how fortunate I was, as a wine professional, to actually have met and tasted with this visionary and legendary Napa pioneer.

Al was a beautiful guy, a very forward thinking individual who truly had his antennae over the horizon in embracing so wholeheartedly the French concept of terroir  (for Cabernet Sauvignon, no less) while fully understanding and appreciating its importance in crafting distinctive wines of artistic merit. I remember the knock on his wines at the time was always, “You’ll never be able to drink them…they will take forever to come around.” Or something like that. Fair enough. Al was definitely old school in fashioning vin de garde wines that demanded time in the cellar. But the duckling eventually does become a swan and my notes bear witness to just how enthralling his legendary efforts have become with a bit of time and patience in the cellar.

In a world obsessed with the here and now, it’s both rewarding and important to re-live a slice of yester-year remembering why people got into the industry and started to collect all this stuff in the first place. Many of today’s Napa winemakers could learn a lot from Al and his approach to both life and wine.

Diamond Creek 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon “Gravelly Meadow”

The wine introduced with a magnificent nose of deep cherry/black cherry fruit reiterated to the palate in conjunction with hints of tobacco, soy and road tar all of which was inflected with stony hints of soil and earth. Sublimely nuanced with hints of cassis and spice, the wine was, surprisingly, fairly lush in the mouth with most of the tannic structure resolved.

Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill 1991, along with other wines poured that night (Jordan 1979, Heitz Martha's 1987, Heitz Martha's 1973)

Diamond Creek 1991 Cabernet Sauvignon “Volcanic Hill”

This wine showcased minerality galore in conjunction with brooding, dark, loamy fruit redolent of cherry/black cherry, wild berry and cherry pit. The soil inflected nuances were completely different from the above-noted “Gravelly Meadow” properly confirming Al’s original decision to vinify and bottle these as two separate entities. This one still has a ways to go.

Diamond Creek 1987 Cabernet Sauvignon “Gravelly Meadow”

This terroir-driven affair spoke in similar fashion to the 1991 in combing all sorts of rock and gravelly nuances with softer, flambéed black cherry/black currant fruit. For many, this classic was the wine of the night. Hints of coriander, carob and exotic spice rounded out this masterpiece which spoke volumes about the efficacy of respect for terroir and the joys of traditional winemaking.