There was a daily double happening at The Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan as there was two special wine tastings in the same week.  The first tasting featured Kashy Khaledi of Ashes & Diamonds Winery.  In 2017, he launched Ashes & Diamonds Winery in Napa Valley.  He had an appreciation for wines and created his own winery, learning from his father Darioush Khaledi of Darioush Winery.  Since opening his own winery that is very reminiscent of California chic architecture of the Fifties, he has gone on to receive accolades from the wine industry.  He uses two winemakers: Steve Matthiason and Diana Snowden Seysses.

The first three wines were made by Steve Matthiason who has a M.S. from UC Davis and has consulted for such historic vineyards as Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Spottswoode Winery, the Araujo Estate and Dalla Valle Vineyards. The first wine was Ashes & Diamonds Winery Blanc No. 8 Napa Valley 2022.  The wine is a blend of sixty-four percent Semillon and thirty-six percent Sauvignon Blanc, with the fruit coming from three vineyards in Napa Valley’s Oak Knoll District and Yountville. The wine is barrel fermented and aged for nine months in French Oak of which seventeen percent was new and they produced two-thousand cases.  The wine is a pale-yellow and offers notes of citrus fruits, and tropical florals, with a refreshing lemon and lime influence.  On the palate a balance wine with tones of green apple, honeysuckle, apricot, and a medium finish of mineral terroir.

The second wine we had was Ashes & Diamonds Vin Rouge, No. 5 Santa Cruz Mountains NV and is a Bordeaux blend style wine.  It is seventy-two percent Cabernet Sauvignon, fifteen percent Merlot, and thirteen percent Cabernet Franc; and it is mostly 2019 vintage with some wine from 2018 and 2017.  The fruit is from the Bates Ranch Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains planted in 1972 at an elevation of 2,100 ft. elevation and sloping. The ranch practices organic dry farming on well-drained silt over iron-rich volcanic soils.  The varieties are co-fermented with nine days of maceration, using indigenous yeasts, and aged in neutral French Oak; with six-hundred-seventy-five-cases produced.  A deep garnet red wine that offers notes of black cherry and black currant, with traces of old leather and cocoa.  On the palate rich tones of black cherry, cassis, blueberry, and vanilla with tight tannins and a medium count finish of fruit and terroir.     

The last of the Steve Matthiason wines that we had was the Ashes & Diamonds Cabernet Franc Napa Valley 2019.  The wine is a blend of eighty percent Cabernet Franc and twenty percent Merlot and the fruit was harvested from vineyards in the cooler south side of Napa Valley: Los Carneros, Oak Knoll District, and Yountville and the vineyards were selected because of their volcanic clay and sandy loam soils.  The fruit underwent twenty days of Maceration in Stainless Steel Tanks.  The juice was then transferred to French Oak barrels, of which twenty-three percent was new and aged for twenty months; there were six-hundred-sixty cases produced.  The wine is a deep garnet color and offered notes of black and red berries, smokiness, and dried herbs.  On the palate a medium-bodied wine with tones of raspberry, strawberry, cherry, cassis black pepper, and vanilla with great balance and medium tannins and a medium finish with fruit and terroir. To me it was more Continental in approach than Domestic and very flavorful.