Earthy notes of Tempranillo dance with aromas of dark chocolate, cherry, plum and spice from Cabernet and Syrah. The wine reveals flavors of juicy dark stone fruit, and minerality and dusty tannins linger on the long finish. The wine is full-bodied and age-worthy. Let it breathe for a couple of hours.
This fantastic, every-day, food-friendly red blend is perfect with grilled meats, pastas, BBQ, spicy sauces and soft cheeses.
Vineyard and Appellation
The grapes were sourced from the Diamond Mine Vineyard site on our ranch. This site is named for the “Lake County Diamonds,” small volcanic-made pieces of quartz that litter the ground and glimmer in the sunlight. The vineyard sits at 1,700 ft. elevation and is surrounded by untouched landscape. It is naturally farmed meaning we use no pesticides and no herbicides. We also use a no-till approach to managing the vineyard floor with the goal of minimum input. Sheep graze in the vineyards helping us compost the permanent cover crop. The shallow, rocky, volcanic soils impart structure and minerality to the wine.
Six Sigma Ranch is 4,300-acre working ranch with nature in mind, integrating small vineyard blocks with the native vegetation, providing corridors for the wildlife. A conservation easement donated to the Golden State Land Conservancy protects for eternity the habitat of deer, bobcat, turkey, wild pig, bear, and other wildlife. We acquired the land in the year of 2000.
Six Sigma Winery was inaugurated on September 28th, 2005, when we processed our first grapes, a beautiful vintage of Tempranillo harvested in Christian’s Diamond Mine Vineyard. We focus on small lot, high quality wines, and every aspect of our winery reflects that, from state-of-the-art equipment to gentle handling and meticulous hand-sorting of the grapes, ensuring that only the best fruit is used in each of our wines.
We have one simple goal in mind for producing our wines: To share the story of the season, the place, and the people who made them. Our story is in every single bottle of Six Sigma wine. We take a natural approach to winemaking as well as farming. Working with Six Sigma methods allows us to take a hands-off philosophy, as we only manage the parameters that are critical to the quality of our wines. We know, for example, that if we carefully control the time and temperature of our fermentations, then unnatural additives to our wines are unnecessary.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, TX, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2014 Six Sigma Diamond Mine Cuvée - $35 = 19.43%
@rjquillin I had this at the gathering, and I liked it a lot. Quite tannic at first, with air lots of red and blue fruit showed up, along with some spice and cedar. I enjoyed it to the end the glass. It was one of my contenders for WOTN. For the $12-$15 being offered here, its a no-brainer. Malcolm Baldridge would approve.
Thoughts of how this compares to the zaca or cinsault cuvees we’ve had here? Especially with regard to the tannins. The high tempranillo makes me think it may be more tannic, especially with the high alcohol percentage. Not as strong as the Scott Harvey, but close.
@Jamileigh17 Al from Six Sigma here, this wine is truly an easy drinker. Highly recommended with our local customers. They call the everyday drinker wine.
We had this last night at the SoCal gathering. I didn’t take notes on paper, but I thought this was a tasty wine. Initially it had plenty of tannin and was otherwise fruity and easy to drink. I found that it got less interesting by the end of the glass, but as always ymmv.
@klezman I more or less agree with Klez. I never take good notes at these social events but here is the cliff notes version. The wine was a good blend, very solid and fruity with enough tannin to give it some heft. I liked the dark fruit core of the wine and felt it would accompany heavier food well, it also had a good acid base and didn’t come across at all flabby. Solid bottle at the 4 pack price and really nice QPR at the case price.
@CorTot@klezman You folks are getting a great deal on this wine and it fills in the gaps that some other blends wish they had.
-Al from Six Sigma Ranch
Long time wooter first time rat, so I was excited to receive an e-mail Tuesday afternoon indicating a bottle was coming my way. I haven’t had a lot of tempranillo (couple times a year), but have been drinking a lot more blends lately so this sounded like a good fit for me. I traditionally go for reds, but in the hot humid New Orleans summers I have to mix in some cold whites and roses.
After putting our little girl to bed Friday night, my wife and I retired to the front porch and opened up the 2014 Six Sigman Diamond Cuvee (74% Tempranillo/ 23% Cabernet Sauvignon/3% Syrah). Besides celebrating the silence that comes with a sleeping toddler, we were also celebrating my wife’s first real drink since we found out she was pregnant about 2 years ago. So, there were high expectations.
It was a deep dark red in the glass and not very transparent. We got a lot of dark berries on the nose, as well some alcohol but nothing overpowering. The first taste was smooth, balanced, full of dark berry flavor, a hint of leather, and had a medium to high tannin content (dried out my tongue a good bit). We felt it was medium to full bodied and not super heavy. My wife said it was worth the wait and thought this would be even better with food.
So, we drank it with some blue cheese and an aged gouda, which went really well together and the food took away most all of the dryness I was getting.
We came back to it a couple times throughout the night but didn’t notice any significant developments in the taste. We also ate it with some pizza later, and it went very well with that too. We thought it was drinking well now, and don’t cellar enough wine to have any valuable input on aging.
On Saturday night, we opened The Spaniard 2013 (53% tempranillo/28% Graciano/19% Garnacha) for a comparison (which I picked up here not long ago). In comparison we felt the Spaniard was equally as smooth, with less alcohol on the nose, less of the dryness I received on the tongue, but the fruit was also less noticeable.
The Six Sigma Diamond Mine Cuvee was a medium to full bodied wine with a nice dark berry profile that could pair with a lot of dishes including steak. Overall, we enjoyed it a lot and will definitely be purchasing some.
Feel free to reach out to me regarding our wine sale here on casemates today. I will be on and off so, and please be patient if I do not answer promptly.
Six Sigma Ranch 2014 Diamond Mine Cuvée Red (Lake County) 91 Points
This big but superbly polished wine shows a great sense of finesse along with abundant fruit and spice flavors. The aromas are at once bright, spicy and like new leather, while the flavors evoke black cherry, black currant and blueberry. 6/1/18 JG
@sdwindansea A wine like this has the ability to age longer than 2022. But it is so good now, that many people choose just to drink it rather than age it. Heck be a dare devil and buy two cases. At this price you could only buy a case at the winery.
I have exceptionally few rules in life, but one of them is “whenever the label on the wine looks like it came from the Kama Sutra I need to think long and hard (hah) about it.”
Had this at our gathering this past Saturday and although I preferred the other rat bottle I felt this bottle was quite good. I do not have formal notes but recall dark berries, plucking tannins at first, and well balanced overall. The wine was noticeably smoother as it opened up over an hour or so. Not the most domplex wine but definitley a step or two abive supermarket wines in the same price range. Merbill and I pegged it at around $30 winery price and felt $18 deliverred would be fair. The case price on here is a great QPR imo.
@vinoboy Yeah, but… Did you know that if you go to edit your post, there’ll be a new giphy when you save it? You’ve got 5 whole minutes to try and try again.
Tasting Notes
Earthy notes of Tempranillo dance with aromas of dark chocolate, cherry, plum and spice from Cabernet and Syrah. The wine reveals flavors of juicy dark stone fruit, and minerality and dusty tannins linger on the long finish. The wine is full-bodied and age-worthy. Let it breathe for a couple of hours.
This fantastic, every-day, food-friendly red blend is perfect with grilled meats, pastas, BBQ, spicy sauces and soft cheeses.
Vineyard and Appellation
The grapes were sourced from the Diamond Mine Vineyard site on our ranch. This site is named for the “Lake County Diamonds,” small volcanic-made pieces of quartz that litter the ground and glimmer in the sunlight. The vineyard sits at 1,700 ft. elevation and is surrounded by untouched landscape. It is naturally farmed meaning we use no pesticides and no herbicides. We also use a no-till approach to managing the vineyard floor with the goal of minimum input. Sheep graze in the vineyards helping us compost the permanent cover crop. The shallow, rocky, volcanic soils impart structure and minerality to the wine.
Specifications
Price Comparison
$345.18 /case at Six Sigma Ranch and Winery
About The Winery
Winery: Six Sigma Ranch and Winery
Owners: Kaj and Else Ahlmann
Founded: 2005
Location: Lake County, CA
Six Sigma Ranch is 4,300-acre working ranch with nature in mind, integrating small vineyard blocks with the native vegetation, providing corridors for the wildlife. A conservation easement donated to the Golden State Land Conservancy protects for eternity the habitat of deer, bobcat, turkey, wild pig, bear, and other wildlife. We acquired the land in the year of 2000.
Six Sigma Winery was inaugurated on September 28th, 2005, when we processed our first grapes, a beautiful vintage of Tempranillo harvested in Christian’s Diamond Mine Vineyard. We focus on small lot, high quality wines, and every aspect of our winery reflects that, from state-of-the-art equipment to gentle handling and meticulous hand-sorting of the grapes, ensuring that only the best fruit is used in each of our wines.
We have one simple goal in mind for producing our wines: To share the story of the season, the place, and the people who made them. Our story is in every single bottle of Six Sigma wine. We take a natural approach to winemaking as well as farming. Working with Six Sigma methods allows us to take a hands-off philosophy, as we only manage the parameters that are critical to the quality of our wines. We know, for example, that if we carefully control the time and temperature of our fermentations, then unnatural additives to our wines are unnecessary.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, TX, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Thursday, May 3 - Monday, May 7
@GarysonM put the kid to bed and shared a Lab Rat Report.
@alsixsigma is here answering questions.
(Click their username for recent activity.)
Six Sigma Ranch Diamond Mine Cuvée
4 bottles for $59.99 $15/bottle + $2/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $144.99 $12.08/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2014 Six Sigma Ranch Cuvée Diamond Mine
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
2014 Six Sigma Diamond Mine Cuvée - $35 = 19.43%
Do you have any ITIL wine?
@Rstoker Why, as a matter of fact, I am an ITIL consultant. How can I help you on your process journey? Change Management seems to be in order here.
let’s here it from the SoCal rats…
@rjquillin Tempted by the Tempranillo and nifty winery logo (though more the former than the latter). I’m in for a split if there’s further interest.
@tklivory pass for me, but you could sure ping the other miscreants down here.
@rjquillin I had this at the gathering, and I liked it a lot. Quite tannic at first, with air lots of red and blue fruit showed up, along with some spice and cedar. I enjoyed it to the end the glass. It was one of my contenders for WOTN. For the $12-$15 being offered here, its a no-brainer. Malcolm Baldridge would approve.
@rjquillin @tklivory love temperanilo blends, I will happily split 12… how do we do this? I’m in LA Miracle Mile area.
@amlammo @rjquillin @tklivory @klezman I think you may be close to Klezman; he’s a good link to the rest of us. Come to a gathering sometime!
@merrybill @rjquillin ill take 4-6 if you can order.
@losthighwayz @merrybill @rjquillin I ordered! How do we… rendezvous? lol
Thoughts of how this compares to the zaca or cinsault cuvees we’ve had here? Especially with regard to the tannins. The high tempranillo makes me think it may be more tannic, especially with the high alcohol percentage. Not as strong as the Scott Harvey, but close.
@Jamileigh17 Al from Six Sigma here, this wine is truly an easy drinker. Highly recommended with our local customers. They call the everyday drinker wine.
Hmmm wife loves Tempranillo…
Dallas? Seems like a good drink now Wine… for Italian food.
@MSUMike Italian, Spanish food, BBQ, Lamb, Cheese, It pairs well with a variety of food.
-Al from Six Sigma Ranch
@MSUMike
I’d be in for 3. I’ll check with my friend if he wants any. Any other DFW interest?
@johnnelson7333 @MSUMike Do it, you will thank me later.
@MSUMike I’m in for 3 or 4 here is richardson, let me know
/giphy wanting-springy-trip
/IMG wanting-springy-trip
We had this last night at the SoCal gathering. I didn’t take notes on paper, but I thought this was a tasty wine. Initially it had plenty of tannin and was otherwise fruity and easy to drink. I found that it got less interesting by the end of the glass, but as always ymmv.
@klezman I more or less agree with Klez. I never take good notes at these social events but here is the cliff notes version. The wine was a good blend, very solid and fruity with enough tannin to give it some heft. I liked the dark fruit core of the wine and felt it would accompany heavier food well, it also had a good acid base and didn’t come across at all flabby. Solid bottle at the 4 pack price and really nice QPR at the case price.
@CorTot @klezman You folks are getting a great deal on this wine and it fills in the gaps that some other blends wish they had.
-Al from Six Sigma Ranch
@alsixsigma @CorTot Agreed this is a great deal and solid value.
Long time wooter first time rat, so I was excited to receive an e-mail Tuesday afternoon indicating a bottle was coming my way. I haven’t had a lot of tempranillo (couple times a year), but have been drinking a lot more blends lately so this sounded like a good fit for me. I traditionally go for reds, but in the hot humid New Orleans summers I have to mix in some cold whites and roses.
After putting our little girl to bed Friday night, my wife and I retired to the front porch and opened up the 2014 Six Sigman Diamond Cuvee (74% Tempranillo/ 23% Cabernet Sauvignon/3% Syrah). Besides celebrating the silence that comes with a sleeping toddler, we were also celebrating my wife’s first real drink since we found out she was pregnant about 2 years ago. So, there were high expectations.
It was a deep dark red in the glass and not very transparent. We got a lot of dark berries on the nose, as well some alcohol but nothing overpowering. The first taste was smooth, balanced, full of dark berry flavor, a hint of leather, and had a medium to high tannin content (dried out my tongue a good bit). We felt it was medium to full bodied and not super heavy. My wife said it was worth the wait and thought this would be even better with food.
So, we drank it with some blue cheese and an aged gouda, which went really well together and the food took away most all of the dryness I was getting.
We came back to it a couple times throughout the night but didn’t notice any significant developments in the taste. We also ate it with some pizza later, and it went very well with that too. We thought it was drinking well now, and don’t cellar enough wine to have any valuable input on aging.
On Saturday night, we opened The Spaniard 2013 (53% tempranillo/28% Graciano/19% Garnacha) for a comparison (which I picked up here not long ago). In comparison we felt the Spaniard was equally as smooth, with less alcohol on the nose, less of the dryness I received on the tongue, but the fruit was also less noticeable.
The Six Sigma Diamond Mine Cuvee was a medium to full bodied wine with a nice dark berry profile that could pair with a lot of dishes including steak. Overall, we enjoyed it a lot and will definitely be purchasing some.
@GraysonM enjoy those silences that come from a sleeping toddler… They are better than other silences in life (IMO).
/giphy rustic-rude-walrus
/giphy ornate-spongy-hour
@jhkey Rock!!!
Hi everyone,
Feel free to reach out to me regarding our wine sale here on casemates today. I will be on and off so, and please be patient if I do not answer promptly.
Thanks,
Al from Six Sigma
@alsixsigma
/giphy You Can Call Me Al
@alsixsigma
/giphy you can call me Al
@jml326 One of the greatest music videos!!
Here is that referenced Wine Enthusiast review:
Six Sigma Ranch 2014 Diamond Mine Cuvée Red (Lake County) 91 Points
This big but superbly polished wine shows a great sense of finesse along with abundant fruit and spice flavors. The aromas are at once bright, spicy and like new leather, while the flavors evoke black cherry, black currant and blueberry. 6/1/18 JG
https://www.winemag.com/buying-guide/six-sigma-ranch-2014-diamond-mine-cuvee-red-lake-county/
fwiw
/giphy occasional capricious carrot
Anyone have a thought on how many more years this wine has left in a cellar? Tempted to go in for 12…and likely they wouldn’t last long in my cellar
@sdwindansea A wine like this has the ability to age longer than 2022. But it is so good now, that many people choose just to drink it rather than age it. Heck be a dare devil and buy two cases. At this price you could only buy a case at the winery.
@alsixsigma Thanks for the response/information. I like to stay in the straight & narrow, so only purchased a case.
I have exceptionally few rules in life, but one of them is “whenever the label on the wine looks like it came from the Kama Sutra I need to think long and hard (hah) about it.”
Had this at our gathering this past Saturday and although I preferred the other rat bottle I felt this bottle was quite good. I do not have formal notes but recall dark berries, plucking tannins at first, and well balanced overall. The wine was noticeably smoother as it opened up over an hour or so. Not the most domplex wine but definitley a step or two abive supermarket wines in the same price range. Merbill and I pegged it at around $30 winery price and felt $18 deliverred would be fair. The case price on here is a great QPR imo.
/giphy teasing-persuasive-highball
I don’t pick the order number…
@vinoboy Yeah, but… Did you know that if you go to edit your post, there’ll be a new giphy when you save it? You’ve got 5 whole minutes to try and try again.
@InFrom @vinoboy but don’t
@InFrom I did not. @bhodilee I won’t
/giphy alive-blotchy-hawk