Nose
The 2015 Hartford Vineyard is an elegant and powerful Zinfandel with blackberry, boysenberry and allspice aromas that are echoed on the palate.
Palate
These fruits transition into ripe black cherry flavors with a spicy cinnamon stick finish. Well-integrated tannins layer on top of the massive fruit flavors and help give the wine opulent texture.
Growing Conditions
Don and Jenny Hartford tend this 100+-year-old vineyard located on seven acres along Wood Road in the Russian River AVA of Sonoma County. The vineyard is head-pruned and produces low yields of about 1 ton / acre. Most vines produce only several clusters of intensely flavored grapes each year. Wood Road has well-drained, low fertility, sandy loam soils about two to three feet in depth over deeper layers of compacted sandy loam of about four to six inches. Since the Italian immigrants who planted the Wood Road Vineyard in the early 1900s wanted to ensure long vine life and moisture for their dry-farmed vines, they placed a blasting cap where each vine was to be planted and blasted through the compacted layer. Today we continue to enjoy the fruits of their ingenuity and celebrate the legacy of "dynamite" Zinfandels. The Hartford Vineyard has also been farmed using organic and biodynamic techniques since 2004.
Bottling
Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
Aging
10 months in 100% French oak, 50% new.
