“One of the most expensive wines in our lineup… I loved it” wrote San Francisco Chronicle wine critic Esther Mobley for this, when reviewing a lineup of athlete-owned wines.

Most Expensive? Not today.

Panek Vineyard! You might know Rivers Marie’s version which goes for a similar $150+ and if you’ve had it, you also know what an absolute killer wine it is.

So, when Agent Rôtie brought this gem to HQ, we fell hard for it, too: rich aromas of black fruit, chocolate, and toasted oak give way to supple tannins. It’s weighty yet nimble on the palate – a serious wine with poise. Then we saw the label: only 8 barrels made! We locked it down as fast as we could.

At roughly 2/3 off, it’s a slam dunk. Or a stolen base – your call.

Diamond & Key is a very new project – so new many in Napa haven’t yet discovered it. 2019 is just their second vintage produced.

Lifelong friends and California natives Klay Thompson (NBA) and Nolan Arenado (MLB) have long enjoyed great wine together. After doing charity work together in Napa in 2017, they decided to make their own – and brought in Joe Harden to lead the charge.

Joe was a natural fit. A former pro baller himself, he and Klay go way back. But Joe also boasts serious wine chops: mentored by Geneviève Janssens (Robert Mondavi) and Thomas Rivers Brown (Schrader, Maybach, Revana – you name it), he became head winemaker at Nickel & Nickel at just 30 years old.

Joe now makes over 17 different single-vineyard Cabernets, so he knows where to find the best fruit. He sourced this beauty from Panek Vineyard, a coveted 5-acre site in St. Helena. OG Operatives may recall the only Panek we featured to date was by Rudius. Pulido-Walker and Rivers-Marie (also by TRB!) are the only others with this prized vineyard on their label. It’s nestled between Turley and Rombauer, with gravelly loam soils that produce powerful yet energetic fruit.

Oh, and Diamond & Key is made at Mending Wall, TRB’s state-of-the-art winemaking facility. It’s not an exaggeration to call it one of the best boutique production epicenters in Napa Valley.

Stock up now!!! This gem isn’t going to stay undiscovered for long.