Double Diamond house spotlight
Wine Spectator: Fred Schrader and winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown on Schrader Cellars Cabernet. Same house and hand as Double Diamond.
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher aggregates critic scores and open-market prices for this exact Oakville Cabernet vintage. Our $69 sits under their published U.S. low of $70.45.
2023 Double Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville, USA
Thomas Rivers Brown's cult Schrader Cabernet, To Kalon sourcing pedigree, a near-perfect 2023 you can actually open at sixty-nine dollars.
The 2023 Double Diamond is Thomas Rivers Brown's Oakville Cabernet for Schrader, Jeb Dunnuck 94 and James Suckling 95, now $69.
The Schrader you can drink tonight
Fred Schrader hired Thomas Rivers Brown to make no-holds-barred Cabernet. Double Diamond is that same hand on Oakville fruit, with the house's To Kalon sourcing pedigree and second-use Schrader Darnajou barrels from the flagship program. Jeb Dunnuck called the 2023 a smoking red longtime Napa lovers will adore. James Suckling went 95. This is the proof that you do not need a mailing list to drink Brown.
The house
Double Diamond is Schrader's Oakville bottle, made so you can drink the cellar without a To Kalon waitlist.
The wine
Almost all Oakville, a splash of Wappo Hill. 52 percent new French oak, 48 percent second-use Schrader Darnajou. 14.8% ABV.
The scores
Jeb Dunnuck 94. James Suckling 95. Built to drink now through 2035.
The drinker
Silky enough for Saturday ribeye. Serious enough to cellar. Same hand as the trophy wines.
Blackberry, cocoa, and a silk line
Jeb Dunnuck: red and black fruits, spicy wood, flowers, cedar, a seamless medium-bodied profile. James Suckling: dark plums, black cherries, dark chocolate, iron, graphite.
A balanced Napa Cabernet year. Double Diamond drinks now and holds through 2035.
Black cherry, plum, graphite, violet, blackberry, cassis, dark chocolate, cedar.
Silky, medium-bodied, 14.8% ABV, 52% new French oak.
Crushed rock and cedar. Serve near 64 F. Decant 20 minutes.
New French oak, then Schrader's own barrels
On the Double Diamond site, Fred Schrader's line on Thomas Rivers Brown is simple: Thomas's only edict is it has to be done perfectly. The 2023 Cabernet is 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 52 percent new French oak and 48 percent second-use Schrader Darnajou, the same cooperage that holds the To Kalon wines. Wine Spectator called Brown's wines reserved and intellectual, refined in style. That is the cellar in this glass: precision, not a speech.
Brown was born in South Carolina, caught the wine bug at the University of Virginia, and landed at Turley before he had made a single Cabernet. In 2000 Fred Schrader recruited him from a Napa wine shop. They wanted no-holds-barred wines. Double Diamond is that brief applied to Oakville fruit you can actually buy.
Jeb Dunnuck reads the 2023 as almost all Oakville with a splash of Wappo Hill: red and black fruit, spicy wood, flowers, cedar, medium-bodied and seamless. The oak split is the point. New wood for lift. Once-used Schrader Darnajou for the house's own grain. Serve near 64 F. Drink now through 2035.
Schrader's second wine, first-growth hands
From the founders of Schrader Cellars, Double Diamond was built so the house's Oakville work could live off the waitlist.
Schrader Cellars made its name on To Kalon Cabernet. Double Diamond carries that cellar into Oakville bottles people can actually open. The winery still talks about prime Oakville estates, including young-vine blocks of To Kalon, under the same Thomas Rivers Brown attention as the flagship wines.
Wine Spectator named the 2019 Double Diamond its Wine of the Year in 2022. James Molesworth wrote that with the pedigree of a great vineyard under the hand of a great winemaker, a second wine should never be overlooked.
The 2023 stays in that line. Almost all Oakville, a splash of Wappo Hill, 100 percent Cabernet. Same house. Same hand. A bottle meant for the table, not the waitlist.
Ribeye on the board, short ribs in the pot
Oakville Cabernet wants char and a long braise.
Two plates. One ribeye. One pot of short ribs.
Serve near 64 F. Decant 20 minutes.
Pan-seared ribeye
Kenji's hard sear. Char and fat for Oakville Cabernet.
Why it works: Crust and fat match cocoa and cassis while tannin cuts the steak.
View Recipe for The Food Lab's Complete Guide to Pan-Seared Steaks (opens in a new tab)
Braised short ribs
Nagi's slow braise, polenta. A 750ml exists for this night.
Why it works: Collagen and glaze echo ripe berries while the wine's frame stays upright.
View Recipe for Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs (opens in a new tab)Open the Schrader you can actually buy
You already know the names. Thomas Rivers Brown. Oakville. To Kalon pedigree. The 2023 is in the glass at sixty-nine dollars.
Put it in the cart. Drink it this week, or lay a few down through 2035. Either way, this is the bottle that closes the proof.
