Wine Spectator: Diamond Creek Owner Adelle “Boots” Brounstein Dies at 92

Adelle “Boots” Brounstein, who co-founded Napa Valley’s legendary Diamond Creek winery with her husband, Al, and helped guide the winery for more than half a century, died July 31 following a brief illness. She was 92.

Boots and her husband were trendsetters in California, planting Cabernet Sauvignon on Diamond Mountain, south of Calistoga, in the late 1960s. The winery was ahead of its time, focusing on single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon at a time when there were fewer than 700 acres of the grape planted in the entire state.

When Al passed away in 2006 from complications related to Parkinson’s disease, Boots continued to oversee the day-to-day operations at the winery with the help of her son Phil Ross. She carried on the couple’s vision of producing terroir-driven wines from the estate’s four vineyards, and Diamond Creek remains a benchmark for Napa Cabernet. Wine Spectator has more on Brounstein’s life and career.—Augustus Weed

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