Francis Coppola Diamond Claret - A Capital British Blend From California

A Cabernet Sauvignon based Bordeaux style blend that seems to get better every year, the Francis Ford Coppola Diamond Collection Black Label Claret.

75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Petit Verdot and 4% Petite Sirah from California. The wine spends 14 months in French oak.

Sample submitted for review. The Francis Coppola Diamond Collection Claret has an SRP of $21 but is available for as low as $12 and generally for around $13 at Costco.

From the bottle:

Francis Coppola Diamond Collection Claret, as its British-derived name implies, is made in the same style as Bordeaux’s finest Medoc type wines. A Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine blended in a Bordeaux style, this wine exhibits an exceptional depth and truly unique flavors. In honoring the authenticity and heritage of wines made in this style by Captain Niebaum himself from California Vineyards dating back to 1910, we call our wine, Claret.

13.5% Alcohol

Claret, as the label mentions, is the term originally used by the British to describe Cabernet Sauvignon based Bordeaux blends. The French obviously don’t like people using the Bordeaux name so you’ll often find these Bordeaux style blends called Claret or Meritage.

Today’s wine is another in our mission to go back and revisit old favorites that we haven’t reviewed in quite a while. Our last review of this one was from the 2009 vintage. Time has been good to the 2016 Francis Ford Coppola Diamond Collection Black Label Claret as we have found this current vintage to be even better than we remembered it.

The wine begins with pleasant aromas of dark fruit, spice, anise and vanilla. The wine tastes dry and smooth (this is not the sweet stuff) with flavors of blackberry, blueberry and other dark fruit plus some other dried herbs and earthiness. A bit of toasty oak and spice emerges on the dry, long finish and resolves into lingering fruit and chocolate notes. This wine is quite good on its own but would probably be just about perfect with a nice juicy steak! We found it to be excellent with beef brisket.

Ready to buy the Francis Coppola Diamond Collection Claret? Check your local retailers.