Wine of the Week: Montezuma Winery 2023 Diamond Pet-Nat
June 12, 2025: This is one of the most consistently delicious pet-nats in the Finger Lakes
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Phil Plummer, winemaker at the Martin Family Wineries (including Montezuma, the brand this wine is bottled under), makes many different wines each vintage. He works with just about every grape variety grown in the Finger Lakes and makes just about every wine style you or I can think of.
One of his most consistently delicious wines, vintage to vintage, is this Montezuma Winery 2023 Diamond Pet-Nat ($25*). (FYI: Diamond is an old—like 1880s old—cross of Concord and Iona.)
The nose is peachy and tropical with some exotic floral aromas on top. Lighter-bodied, the palate is just off-dry, with more of that same peachy-tropical fruit character, more flowers, and a pleasant bitter edge that combines with snappy acidity and frothy carbonation to cut through and balance the subtle sweetness.
There are wines you sit with and think about and study and ruminate on. This isn’t one of those—but it’s no less delicious for that.
Montezuma Winery 2023 Diamond Pet-Nat
Region: Finger Lakes (AVA)
ABV: 11.2%
Rating: 91 pts
Price: $25* (Available Here)
*Sample Provided by Winery