This is a beautiful Onda with a blackberry and hazelnut character with some mushroom and floral undertones. Even some minerality and hot stones. Wet cement, too. A gorgeous wine. One of the best Onda. Drink or hold.

Score: 96 James Suckling (JS), JamesSuckling.com, May 2018

The 2015 Onda is gorgeous. More than anything, the Onda will give readers a very good idea of what the vintage holds at Dana Estates. Ripe, sumptuous and silky on the palate, with terrific freshness and no excess weight, the Onda is absolutely beautiful in 2015. Sweet red and purplish fruit, lavender, rose petal and mint all give the wine freshness. This is a gorgeous, utterly irresistible wine from Dana Estates. Dollops of Merlot and Petit Verdot round out the blend.

Score: 93 Antonio Galloni (AG), Vinous Media (VM), March 2018

Containing 3% Petit Verdot and 5% Merlot, bottled in May 2017, the 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Onda has a deep garnet-purple color and expressive nose of cassis, fresh plums and mulberries with touches of spice cake, violets and wild thyme. Medium to full-bodied, fine and refreshing in the mouth, it delivers loads of open-knit fruit and spice notions with great length.

A very impressive revival of this historical estate in Rutherford (formally the Livingston-Moffett Estate), under the diligent consultancy of Philippe Melka, Dana Estates is producing polished and expressive superstar wines from three wonderfully diverse vineyards. Helms Vineyard consists of five acres on gravelly loam, right on the northern edge of the Rutherford bench, planted in 1997 and 1998. Hershey Vineyard on Howell Mountain is 26 acres in total, 18 of which were planted in 2008. It is planted to just about all aspects imaginable, so it’s quite a varied site, although the Dana Hershey label comes mainly from just four blocks. Lotus Vineyard is just below Howell Mountain, not high enough to make that AVA. A very steep vineyard, 100% hand farmed, Lotus is by far the warmest site for this estate. Onda is a blend of all the vineyards, including their fourth Crystal Springs vineyard, which does not produce a single vineyard wine.  As with most of Northern California, 2015 was a very small vintage for Dana Estates, producing very small berries with little or no seeds, which is likely a contributing factor to the firm yet beautifully ripe, sensuous tannins this vintage lends. After the drought vintages and a larger crop in 2014, 2015 naturally set a smaller crop. 2016 gave a really nice balance between fruit set and canopy with very little crop thinning required.  I was offered a tasting of a few older vintages of these remarkable wines, which are aging gracefully and revealing the potential of these incredible vineyards.

Score: 93 Lisa Perrotti-Brown (LPB), The Wine Advocate (WA), December 2017