2016 Mueller Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Diamond Mountain District Napa Valley 750 ml

In the high-elevation, sun-drenched hills on the southern edge of Calistoga, vantage points look out on the kind of unending views that nearly complete life. Here, amidst the rugged and unforgiving landscape of Napa’s Diamond Mountain District, a handful of wine producers have brought notoriety to the AVA—the likes of Lokoya, J. Davies, Robert Craig, Diamond Creek, and Rudy von Strasser who sold his property last year. But there are great wineries flying under the radar, like today’s 95-point Diamond Mountain estate 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon from Mueller Family Vineyards.

In 2016, Robert Parker’s 98-point vintage, all the stars aligned for consulting winemaker Chris Phelps, a Napa veteran who learned to make wine at Petrus in 1982. Phelps has since made wine for Dominus, Caymus, Inglenook, and under his own label Ad Vivum Cabernet, which sold out in mere minutes on Wine Access last January. 

The 2016 Mueller Family Vineyards Diamond Mountain Cabernet shows inky black in the glass, is expansive, with an impressive core of black fruit underscored by powerful mountain tannin and a precise mineral cut. Enthusiast’s 95-point review found an “underlying richness of chocolate-covered espresso beans and dark cherry.” 

When Frank and Angie Mueller bought their property in 1989, they hadn’t planned on making wine. Frank, a family doctor, had a practice in St. Helena and Angie, a nurse, worked at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa. They had one rule for their new home on then-secluded Diamond Mountain: no cosmetic expenditures over $500. Imagine their surprise to roll up to the driveway one afternoon to find 250 vines had been planted. “Who approved this expense?” Angie wondered, glaring at Frank.

Actually, it was a stroke of luck and charity—a patient of Frank’s repaying him for free care given to a family member. They made a little wine, and fell fast in love with the life cycle from budbreak to bottle. In no time, the Muellers' daughters Nicolette and Claire were involved and it was a full-fledged family affair, ready to expand.  

Their first official vintage of Mueller Family Vineyards Cabernet was 2007. Today, just 1.4 acres of Spottswoode Clone Cabernet grapes are planted in front and behind the house, on daringly steep hillside slopes. Avid gardeners, the Muellers keep bees, which help pollinate a mix of raspberry bushes, lavender plants, and an array of citrus trees that surround the grapes—and which, at 1,100 ft. elevation, are rarities. But that is perhaps the defining quality of Diamond Mountain: rare, singular, and unique.      

In Master of Wine Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine, the Diamond Mountain District is described as a landscape where “weathered red sedimentary soils contribute graphite notes to the tannic Cabernet Sauvignons, which benefit from extensive bottle ageing.” 

The near-perfect 2016 growing season saw a warm, moderate summer, followed by a cool September, but the high elevation and vivid sunlight on Diamond Mountain ripened grapes to absolute perfection. Phelps harvested on September 28, destemmed the tiny, thick-skinned, concentrated Cabernet grapes, then left them to cold-soak for 72 hours prior to fermentation. All told, a 21-day maceration eventually saw only free-run juice aged in 65% new French oak barrels for 20 months. 

The result is a wine that is rich and opulent today, delivering loads of early-drinking pleasure with a good 30-minute decant. But in a decade, once this powerhouse blooms, those of you patient enough to wait will be treated to a seriously complex Cabernet.