Nose
Blackberry, pepper and licorice notes on nose.
Palate
Full-bodied with ripe plum, well integrated tannins and long, lingering finish.
Growing Conditions
- Rainfall: 25 inches(below normal)
- Bloom: May
- Weather: Rains in April and May helped the vines get through the summer. We were already into our zinfandel harvest when the Labor Day heat wave hit; we quickened our pace and finished at Lytton Springs by the 18th of October
Winemaking
After several early harvests, 2018 began on September 4th, a more typical start-date for Sonoma County. Natural yeast fermentations were slow but steady. Color and tannin were plentiful after just three days of maceration. To manage tannin extraction, we limited pumpovers to once a day for all petite sirah and many zinfandel lots. While approachable as a young wine, this full, rich zinfandel will age beautifully for at least ten years.
- Fermentation: Full crush; 100% natural primary and secondary; pressed at nine days.
Hand-harvested, sustainably grown, estate grapes; destemmed and crushed; fermented in native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; a total of 0.25 grams/liter tartaric acid; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur for this wine (35ppm at crush, 96ppm over the course of aging); pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.
Aging
- Barrels: 100% air-dried American oak barrels (10% new, 25% one-year-old, 15% two-year-old, 15% four-year-old and 20% five-years-old).
- Aging: Fourteen months in barrel
