St. Helena, CA (March 13, 2013) – Hill Wine Company of St. Helena, denying recent allegations made by Diamond Mountain Vineyard, has filed a cross complaint against the Calistoga grape grower for breach of contract, fraud and breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing.

Hill Wine Company alleges that Diamond Mountain Vineyard failed to provide Hill with certain minimum quantities of high-quality premium grapes and refused to identify which grapes they were going to sell. The wine company claims that by doing this, Diamond Mountain was able to select the best fruit for themselves and leave the sub-standard fruit to be sold to Hill in order to fulfill the contract.

“The lawsuit states that my company did not monitor the condition of the grapes during the growing season, which is entirely untrue,” said Jeff Hill, proprietor of Hill Wine Company. “We had our winemaker and consultant from Paul Hobbs working on this project. He instructed Frederic Constant, owner of Diamond Mountain Vineyard, of the work to be performed, but it was not carried out. When we discovered the lack of fruit and its poor quality, we declined the Cabernet Sauvignon; but we did offer to buy Merlot and Cabernet Franc, as the quality under select-pick would have worked out. Constant flat-out declined the purchase."

Hill Wine Company has responded to additional complaints cited in the lawsuit and alleges that this is a case of misrepresentation and an attempt of Diamond Mountain Vineyard to pass off inferior fruit to them at the premium prices listed in the contract.

Hill Wine Company, located at 1001 Silverado Trail, was established in 2008, and sources fruit from premier appellations throughout Napa Valley. The end result is wine that captures the best the entire Napa Valley has to offer.