100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Food pairings: Prime rib, grilled ribeye and other juicy red meat dishes, braised lamb and aged cheeses.

Winemaking: The grapes, all from the Jackson clone of Cabernet Sauvignon, were hand harvested, and the wine was 100% barrel fermented using only indigenous yeasts, then aged for 18 months in Taransaud and Boutes French oak barrels, 25% new. The 2023 was a cool season with abundant early rain: budbreak came late in April, veraison was delayed to August, sugars accumulated slowly in September and the hand harvest extended into November.

Vineyards and terroir: Diamond Dust Vineyard sits on benchland in the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County, with a south-southeast exposure and deep, gravelly loam soils ideal for Cabernet Sauvignon. Its topography protects it from Pacific winds, while early morning fogs keep it fresh, making it, in the winemaker's words, a true "trig point" among the great vineyards of Alexander Valley for classic, lush and varietally true Bordeaux varieties.

Family and history: Trig Point is the label of Nick Goldschmidt and his wife Yolyn, who founded their family company in 1998 to make single-vineyard, handcrafted, small-production wines. A "trig" is a trigonometrical survey station set on a hilltop; Nick's father was a land surveyor, and Nick uses the idea for the well-known vineyard sites he works with. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Nick was a globe-trotting "flying winemaker", serving as head winemaker for Simi and then for Allied Domecq and Beam Estates' California brands, before going out on his own full time in 2008.

In the pictures: Winemaker Nick Goldschmidt among the vines (courtesy of Trig Point / The Sorting Table).