Double Diamond house spotlight
Wine Spectator: Fred Schrader and winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown on Schrader Cellars Cabernet. Same house and hand as this 375ml.
The market on this bottle
Wine-Searcher tracks this vintage across the open market.
375ML Half Bottle 2023 Double Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon Oakville, USA
Thomas Rivers Brown's cult Schrader Cabernet in a half bottle, To Kalon sourcing pedigree, forty-four dollars.
The 2023 Double Diamond Oakville Cabernet in 375ml is blackberry, cassis, and dark chocolate from Thomas Rivers Brown, now $44.
Schrader Oakville, two and a half glasses
Same Thomas Rivers Brown Cabernet as the 750ml, half the bottle. Oakville fruit, a splash of Wappo Hill, Schrader Darnajou barrels. Jeb Dunnuck 94, James Suckling 95. This is the proof you can drink Brown on a weeknight without opening a full bottle.
The house
Double Diamond is Schrader's more open Oakville Cabernet, made by Thomas Rivers Brown.
The bottle
375ml. Two and a half glasses. Same wine as the 750ml, half the commitment.
The wine
Almost all Oakville, a splash of Wappo Hill. 52 percent new French oak. JD 94, JS 95.
The drinker
Two and a half glasses. Serve near 64 F. A pork chop or mushroom risotto. No long decant.
Blackberry, cocoa, and a half-bottle pour
Jeb Dunnuck called the 2023 a smoking red of red and black fruits, spicy wood, flowers, and cedar. James Suckling: luscious, easy-sipping, dark plums and cocoa.
A balanced Napa Cabernet year. Double Diamond is built to drink now through 2035.
Black cherry, plum, graphite, violet, blackberry, cassis, dark chocolate.
Silky, medium-bodied, 14.8% ABV, 52% new French oak.
Cedar and crushed rock. Serve near 64 F. The half bottle does not need a long decant.
Schrader barrels, Oakville fruit
On the Double Diamond site the 2023 is 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 52 percent new French oak and 48 percent second-use Schrader Darnajou. Fred Schrader's line on Brown: it has to be done perfectly. The half bottle is that cellar in a Tuesday-night format.
Jeb Dunnuck reads the 2023 as almost all Oakville with a splash of Wappo Hill: red and black fruit, spicy wood, flowers, cedar. The 375ml is the same wine as the 750, just a shorter conversation.
Serve near 64 F. The half bottle does not need a long decant.
Schrader's other Oakville bottle
The same cellar as the To Kalon wines, in a bottle you can finish tonight.
Schrader Cellars is known for Beckstoffer To Kalon Cabernet. Double Diamond is the house's Oakville bottle that does not require a To Kalon allocation.
Thomas Rivers Brown makes both. The 2023 is 100 percent Cabernet, almost all Oakville.
The 375ml is two and a half glasses. Same house. Same hand.
A pork chop, then mushroom risotto
A half bottle of Oakville Cabernet wants a weeknight chop and a pan of risotto, not a ceremony.
Two plates. One pork chop. One mushroom risotto. Both fit a 375ml.
Serve near 64 F. A short pour, no long decant.
Pan-seared pork chops
Kenji's deep-brown chop. Fat and a hard sear match cocoa and cedar.
Why it works: Pork fat and crust match the toast and dark fruit without adding more tannin.
View Recipe for Perfect Pan-Seared Pork Chops (opens in a new tab)
Mushroom risotto
Thyme, parmesan, wild mushrooms. Umami for an Oakville Cabernet half bottle.
Why it works: Earth and butter echo graphite and cedar while the wine stays silky.
View Recipe for mushroom risotto (opens in a new tab)Open the half bottle tonight
Thomas Rivers Brown. Oakville. Two and a half glasses. Forty-four dollars.
Put it in the cart. This is Schrader Cabernet you can finish on a weeknight.
