sign in sign up
<<
Home , Alicante Bouschet, DeLoach Vineyards, Lodi AVA, Wine grapes, Zinfandel

California

comes from some of the oldest (more than 130 years) and best in the Dry Creek THE ZENITH Valley, and a portion of the Zin comes from the outstanding Monte Rosso in the OF ZINFANDEL Sonoma Valley appellation. Gallo, Signature Series, Dry Creek It’s a variety synonymous with Californian , but for years it was Valley, Sonoma County 2017 92 N/A UK www.gallosignatureseries.com overlooked in favour of fashionable Bordeaux styles. Now, thanks to There’s a whiff of freshly baked bread on some of the state’s best winemakers, it’s the star of field blends and the nose leading to boysenberries, raspberries and blackberries on the single- bottlings alike. Jeff Cox shares his top producer picks palate, with hints of brown sugar, sweet smoke and molasses. It’s ripe but not jammy – in other words, it has attraction, not just extraction. Drink 2020-2028 Alcohol 15.9% nyone who likes ‘the blood and sun goes easy on the tannins, but finds backbone of ’, as a European friend in its acid profile and spiciness on the palate. characterised his first taste of One of its glories is its ability to age, as was Zinfandel, should give recognition proven at a recent gathering of friends when RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY toA the early Italian pioneers who settled the a double magnum of 1987 Joseph Swan coasts of central and northern California. Vineyards’ old-vine Zinfandel had the crowd Carlisle The regions looked like northern . They cheering. ‘I can smell that wine in here,’ yelled had Italy’s Mediterranean climate. And those a cook from the kitchen. ‘I was a software developer,’ says Carlisle’s Italian farmers brought with them more than It was an obscure and ancient Croatian Mike Officer. ‘This (he gestures at the 2,000 years of -growing and variety called Crljenak Kaštelanski that buildings, silvery steel tanks and rolling hills experience. They didn’t have degrees in emigrated to America in the early 19th with their marching rows of vines) is my or . They farmed by the century and became California’s signature second career.’ Recently, he and his wife seat of their pants. But they were savvy as hell. variety, Zinfandel. Unlike the first waves of Kendall made 1,000 cases of Papera Ranch The pioneers are long gone, though you can human immigrants to the United States, who Zinfandel 2017, but it wasn’t easy. still taste that savvy in from their have now all passed on, some of those first- ‘We had severe heat on 1 and 2 September vineyards, many planted between 100-140 generation vines are still with us, providing [about 45°C] and we lost a lot of fruit because years ago. These vineyards are mostly glorious drinking. many of the pedicels that connect the grape Zinfandel, a variety that came to California berries to the clusters shrank and died, just a few years before the Italian settlers, DRY CREEK VALLEY cutting off the fruit’s water supply.’ They had and which the Italians favoured almost to haul sorting tables to the vineyards, then immediately upon their arrival. E&J Gallo sort again in the to separate the They planted a few other varieties along unripe, high-acid raisins from the good fruit. with the Zin: , Petite Sirah, Alicante If any winemaking company knows a lot about It was worth it. ‘The 2017 is very high Bouschet, , Mataro (their name for Zinfandel, it’s the world’s largest, E&J Gallo. quality,’ he says. The vineyard is about 96% Mourvèdre) and even a few vines of white Founded in 1933, Julio Gallo made the wine Zinfandel and 4% Carignan, and was planted , among others, to give diversity. and his brother Ernest sold it. They labelled in 1934 by Italian immigrant Celestino Papera These field blends were yielding wine the good stuff ‘Hearty Burgundy’, but it was a few kilometres west of Santa Rosa. when Monet and Van Gogh were painting less hearty than yummy and had absolutely The Papera vineyard may be 86 years old, their masterpieces. nothing to do with Burgundy. but Officer says he’s ‘never seen another old- The head-trained vines in those vineyards Times have changed. Gallo has become the vine vineyard as healthy and in such good are ancient, thick and gnarled now. They don’t 800-pound gorilla of the wine world. The shape’. He should know: he’s the president of yield much fruit, but they clutch the earth in a company has many , labels and price the aforementioned Historic Vineyard Society. strong embrace and impart its essence, and points, and makes some very sophisticated, the richness of their age, to their grapes. high-quality wines. One of the latter is Gallo’s Carlisle, Papera Ranch, Russian River Dismissed for years as not worth much – Signature Series Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, Valley, Sonoma County 2017 92 even torn out to be replaced by the new and the winemaker’s signature on the label is N/A UK www.carlislewinery.com darlings of Bordeaux varieties, that of Gina Gallo, Julio’s granddaughter. She’s The flavour of red raspberries and blood and – the true nobility of these dedicated to good wine, as is her husband, oranges is Papera’s signature note. Also, ancient vines is now being recognised. Jean-Charles Boisset (see p74). ethereal hints of tobacco, spun sugar, Historic Vineyard Society is a non-profit ‘Julio loved Zinfandel,’ says Gina. It’s a Gina Gallo, redcurrant and macerated cherries. organisation devoted to their preservation penchant among the Italian families who winemaker at Zinfandel with 4% Carignan, this is silky (www.historicvineyardsociety.org). re-established winemaking after , E&J Gallo, and graceful on the palate, and the high Newer plantings of Zinfandel can certainly and her Signature Series showcases why. The Dry Creek Valley acidity bodes well for lenghty ageing. produce delicious, worthy wines. The variety fruit – 93% Zinfandel and 7% Petite Sirah – Drink 2020-2028 Alc 15% ➢

70 | April 2020 • Decanter • April 2020 | 71 Highway 99 Highway Highway 99W California Zinfandel 101 Nevada OREGON City CALIFORNIA

San NEVADA Francisco USA DRY CREEK VALLEY Santa NAPA Sacramento DRY CREEK VALLEY Rosa VALLEY 15 9 16 17 18 Los Angeles ARIZONA SONOMA Napa LODI Nalle Winery VALLEY Vallejo Pacific Seghesio Family Ocean MEXICO N 5 6 14 Lodi Back in the mid-1980s, when many Zinfandel Oakland San Vineyards producers were making big, muscular trophy Francisco CALIFORNIA wines, Doug Nalle and his wife Lee started Highway 99 Californian Zinfandel The Seghesio winery and tasting room in their winery with the intention of making Pacific 1 Nalle Winery Healdsburg, Sonoma County is a veritable S A N J O A Q U NI 2 Seghesio Family Vineyards Ocean Santa elegant, lean and complex Zins in the 3 Dry Creek Vineyard temple of Zinfandel, with a dozen different Cruz V A L L E Y European style of noble red wines. ‘We were 0 50 100 4 E&J Gallo labels of either single-vineyard wines or blends 5 Ridge kilometres following tradition,’ says Doug, ‘using French Salinas 6 Bucklin Old Hill Ranch sourced from vineyards scattered around the 7 Carlisle and making wines under 14% alcohol. We 8 DeLoach Vineyards county. The flagship wine is the Cortina ALEXANDER NAPA 9 Klinker Brick Winery wanted the wine to be food-friendly.’ 1 2 VALLEY VALLEY Zinfandel, made from vines planted in 1972 by 11 12 Salinas 10 Turley Wine Cellars They had good fruit to work with. Their 3 4 13 11 Zialena fourth-generation Ted Seghesio and his father Highway DRY CREEK 12 Scherrer Winery property included 0.6ha of old Zin vines 101 Ed. The Cortina soils flank the streambed that VALLEY PASO 13 Kokomo Winery planted in 1927 by Lee’s great-grandparents, ROBLES 14 Bedrock Wine Company gives Dry Creek Valley its name. Above: Ted Seghesio recent plantings to pure Zin because of the SONOMA COAST Fred and Ruby Henderlong. Today that fruit is RUSSIAN RIVER 10 15 Mike & Molly Hendry Winemaker Andy Robinson, who works quality of our fruit,’ Robinson says. ‘There’s a VALLEY 16 Alquimista Cellars augmented with Zinfandel from the Bernier- Santa Rosa San Luis 17 McCay Cellars with vineyard manager Ned Neumiller, calls certain elegance that doesn’t need any other 7 8 Obispo 18 St Amant Winery Sibary vineyard, 8km north. Both sites are dry- SANTA the Cortina 2016 ‘perfection’. By that, he varieties in the blend.’ BARBARA

farmed and the vines head-trained, with some Nelson Maggie Map: means it is a precise balance of acid, tamed Petite Sirah and Carignan in the field blends. tannins and bright red fruits that culminate Seghesio Family Vineyards, Cortina Doug, and now his son Andrew and Nalle, Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, in a long finish. ‘Zinfandel is best when there Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma daughter-in-law April, the current winemakers Sonoma County 2016 94 are three layers,’ says Robinson, referring to a County 2016 93 and proprietors, achieved this elegant style by £29 (2014) Domaine Direct grape cluster. ‘There are some underripe £39.40-£52.99 (2015) AG Wines, picking the fruit at its initial burst of ripeness. Nalle wines show Zinfandel’s nobility. berries, most are perfectly ripe and a few are Christopher Keiller, GP Brands, The Fine Wine ‘We sort at the picking bins and again when The variety’s natural blackcurrant and overripe.’ This is fairly typical of Zinfandel, Co, The Wine Reserve, Vinvm, Wine Direct we get the fruit into the winery, looking to raspberry fruit exuberance is tamed by especially in Dry Creek, where nights are chilly Sage, earth and dried herbs on the nose; discard any overripe berries,’ says Andrew. early picking, yielding bright acidity for and often foggy, while days are warm or hot. then rich flavours of raspberries, cherries April adds: ‘Younger folks in the tasting room long ageing. Its earthiness (combined And why do they focus on 100% Zinfandel? and blueberries. A core of acid and are looking for low-alcohol wines that are with 5% each of Petite Sirah and Didn’t pioneers like the Seghesios, who smooth tannins make this fun now and nicely balanced.’ It’s a trend other Zinfandel Carignan) harmonises with roses and founded the winery in 1895, make field blends? for several years to come. A wine that Doug Nalle Photograph: Holly Leitner Holly Photograph: producers have noticed, too (see box p75). herbs. Drink 2020-2036 Alc 13.9% ‘They did, but we intentionally kept more defines Dry Creek Zin. Drink 2020-2025 Alc 15.3%

SONOMA VALLEY Felice Pagani bought the property The site is gravelly clay loam in a LODI 30hl/ha, lower than the average in the late 1880s and put in 12ha of cool part of the valley that allows for 50-60hl/ha typical of the Lodi AVA. Ridge the field blend – mostly Zinfandel – slow ripening and a delayed . Klinker Brick The result, says Felten, is ‘more like from 1896 to 1922. Another 2.4ha ‘In 2017,’ says Olney, ‘we finished a fine wine’: ‘Elegant and smooth, not Pagani Ranch sits in the middle of a were planted to Zin and Petite Sirah in picking on 7 October.’ The next night, Winery peppery or spicy. It tastes more like a stretch of the Sonoma Valley so 2013. Pagani’s descendants still fire blazed through Kenwood, but the .’ The quality of picturesque that cars are often parked manage the vineyard. Several wineries fruit had been safely trucked away. Klinker Brick’s Old Ghost flagship Lodi’s old-vine made a leap along the highway, their occupants purchase its fruit, but half of the ‘Pagani Ranch shows character,’ bottling isn’t tied to any particular forward at the end of the 1980s, when taking photos of the ranch’s Victorian harvest goes to winemaker John Olney says Olney, referring to a best vineyard in the Mokelumne sub- drip irrigation replaced flooding farmhouse and barns, century-old at Ridge. Pagani Ranch has been a part described as giving honest, focused appellation of the Lodi AVA, but is ditches between rows. Less water vines and the mountains to the east. of Ridge’s array of Zins since 1991. red- and black-fruit flavours. made from fruit selected as the meant smaller berries, greater skin- highest quality from several to-juice ratio, and better wines. The Ridge, Pagani Ranch vineyards. In fact, each of Old Old Ghost is evidence of that. Zinfandel, Sonoma Valley, Ghost may be from different Sonoma County 2017 94 vineyards. ‘It could be a different set Klinker Brick, Old Ghost, N/A UK www.ridgewine.com of vineyards next year,’ says Steven Lodi, San Joaquin County Winemaker John Olney says Felten, who owns the winery with his 2016 91 that the long hang-time of the wife Lori. ‘But we’re always looking for £35 Daniel Lambert grapes shifts the red-fruit notes elegance and the best-quality fruit.’ This wine carries its luscious towards sweet cherries and The winery is named for the old, flavours of brambles, vanilla, boysenberries, without any burnt-surfaced bricks that ring with a caramel, dried cherries and cloying overripeness. Pagani ‘klink’ when struck, characteristic of herbs from start to finish, has earthiness, too. This is brick buildings in the area. What the accented by aromas of anise Zinfandel with Petite Sirah, Alicante chosen vineyards have in common is and cloves. It’s 100% inland Bouschet and Mataro. Drink 2020-2030 age – from 40 to more than 100 years Zinfandel, but remarkably Pagani Ranch field blend vineyard Steven Felten Alc 14.9% Vineyards Nigen/Ridge Heidi Photograph: old – and restricted yields of about graceful. Drink 2020-2030 Alc 15.9% ➢

72 | April 2020 • Decanter Decanter • April 2020 | 73 California Zinfandel

SONOMA COUNTY field blends by DeLoach. These vineyards include Fanucchi, Riebli, Rue and Saitone in ‘There’s DeLoach Vineyards Russian River Valley. Maloney wants to emphasise the fresh fruit a deep While the winery is in the Russian River Valley character in these grapes, so he lightly crushes AVA, the fruit used to make DeLoach’s them and gives them a four- to seven-day cold terroir Forgotten Vines bottling comes from vineyards soak. He then ferments and presses them in several Sonoma County appellations. when the wine is dry. He uses native yeasts that gives Russian River Valley supplies 75% of the grapes and finishes any laggard fermenters with in the blend, 10% is from the Monte Rosso commercial yeast if needed. a sense vineyard in Sonoma Valley, 10% from Fountaingrove in Santa Rosa, and 5% from DeLoach, Forgotten Vines, Sonoma of the Knight’s Valley in far eastern Sonoma County. County 2016 91 Winemaker Brian Maloney, who came up with N/A UK www.deloachvineyards.com time these the name for the bottling, says the vines that The aroma of this elegant , contribute to Forgotten Vines have an average part of the Boisset Collection, features vines have age of more than 100 years old. fresh red raspberries, tobacco leaf and Jean-Charles Boisset, the owner of DeLoach chocolate. On the palate, its red fruits been alive’ and husband of Gina Gallo (see p70), says these are bright and acidic, giving it a Jean-Charles Boisset old vines impart a notion of history. ‘There’s succulent appeal, and Zinfandel’s spice spirituality in the wine, and a deep terroir that is exhibited as white pepper. Burgundian gives you a sense of the time these vines have Jean-Charles Boisset likes that sinewy, been alive.’ The components of Forgotten elegant style, and winemaker Brian Maloney Vines are also sold as single-vineyard old-vine delivers it. Drink 2020-2026 Alc 15.6%

SONOMA VALLEY miners. With peaches sold at $2 each, he soon had enough money to buy extensive land in Bucklin Old Hill Ranch Sonoma Valley, and today’s ancient-vine field blend is a remnant of his land holding. The 4.9ha of ancient vines at Will Bucklin’s The Hill ranch was sold to Will’s DRY CREEK VALLEY Above: old-vine grafted to clones from four Dry Creek Valley Old Hill Ranch in Glen Ellen, Sonoma County, grandfather Otto, an early environmentalist Zinfandel at Dry Creek vineyards. The wine shimmers with bramble were planted in the 1880s, after whose farming method was ‘benign neglect’. Dry Creek Vineyard Vineyard fruits, allspice and leather. wiped out the original vines planted in 1852. When deer would nibble the vines and fruit, At 140 years old, some of them cling to life on Will says his grandfather’s response was: ‘A At a tasting set up by proprietor Kim Stare Dry Creek Vineyard, Old Vine spindly trunks, while others are thick and deer’s gotta eat, too.’ Wallace and winemaker Tim Bell, the Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma massive. All of them carry history on their Thankfully, the vineyard survived. surprises just kept coming. It seemed that this County 2017 92 gnarled shoulders right into the glass, where Ampelographers have identified between well-established Zinfandel winery’s Heritage N/A UK www.drycreekvineyard.com you can taste it. Below: Will Bucklin 28-35 different varieties mixed in with the Vine Zinfandel 2017 would be the hands- The spiciness of nutmeg, cardamom and William McPherson Hill came west in 1849, lives on and manages 65% Zinfandel. ‘We even have an unknown down star of the show, as the fruit comes from cinnamon from these old vineyards is but he didn’t toil for gold. Instead, he made his Old Hill Ranch with his vine,’ says Will. ‘It doesn’t show up in any budwood taken from pre-Prohibition vines very apparent in the wine. As well as this, money selling food and equipment to the wife, Lizanne Pastore other vineyard and no one has ever identified found in old field blends and grafted onto new, you get blackberry cobbler and the sharp it.’ It adds a note of mystery to wine handed phylloxera-resistant rootstock. It is a fine and acid notes of fresh-crushed cranberries down to us from the century before last. fruity Zin, and they made a lot of it in 2017: on the nose, and rich black cherries, 15,000 cases. That year, horrendous fires raspberries and dark chocolate on the Bucklin Old Hill Ranch, Ancient Field burned through large swathes of Sonoma palate. Drink 2020-2028 Alc 14.5% ➢ Blend, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County County, but not Dry Creek Valley; luckily, the 2017 93 wine was safely in tanks as the fire blazed and N/A UK www.buckzin.com the county was blanketed in smoke, so there’s This Old Hill Ranch cuvée (about 65% no smoke taint in the wines. Zinfandel, plus others including But more impressive still was the Old Vine Grenache, , Petite Zinfandel 2016, made with fruit from several Next-gen Zin Sirah and Grand Noir) offers ethereal vineyards in the valley with an average age of While ancient field blends continue to enchant, producers report that violet and crushed-pepper aromas, and a more than 95 years. Steady, moderate weather among younger California Zinfandel wine lovers, the trend is toward characteristic terroir note of eucalyptus, during ripening produced a perfect vintage. lighter, lower-alcohol, fruit-forward wines – especially those showing cardamom, dried leaves, earth, yeast and The biggest surprise came when the Four the perfume of carbonic . Some winemakers are taking cloves. Dark-fruit flavours are seductively rich, as Clones vineyard’s 2017 blend of Zin, Petite advantage of this trend by making small-batch fermentations that though the volcanic and seabed-derived soil is Sirah and Alicante Bouschet was poured. This contain whole berries and some whole clusters. Erik Miller at Kokomo sending a message from times gone by. Vines were 1.78ha vineyard flanks the winery. It was (see p77) and Greg La Follette at Alquimista (p78) are two who have planted in the 1880s. Drink 2020-2026 Alc 15.3% planted in 2009, and the rootstocks were climbed aboard this bandwagon.

74 | April 2020 • Decanter Decanter • April 2020 | 75 California Zinfandel

PASO ROBLES Turley Wine Cellars Larry Turley is a fanatical Zinfandel maker, producing 47 bottlings from 50 vineyards, many old field blends that he nursed back to health. It figures – he was an emergency room physician for 25 years before starting Turley Wine Cellars in 1993. He and his director of winemaking, Tegan Passalacqua, make some of the world’s best Zinfandels. A candidate for the best of the best is the Ueberroth Vineyard 2016, made from vines Larry Turley planted in 1885 in Paso Robles, near the sea. ‘You can smell the salt air from the top of the hill,’ says Turley. The hill is a knoll at 460m Turley, Ueberroth Vineyard, Paso altitude, with 40° slopes and 6.5ha planted to Robles, San Luis Obispo County 2016 Jeff Cox is a food, 95% Zin, plus some Carignan and Grenache. 96 wine, gardening and The soil is calcareous shale and seabed £60 (2017) Thorman Hunt travel journalist based mudstone, with a strongly alkaline pH of 8.5- Beautifully pure, chewy, rich and sweet in Sonoma County, 8.9 in some spots. ‘People said you can’t grow flavours of plums and cherries overlay California who has grapes in soil that alkaline,’ laughs Turley. hints of Christmas spices, a dark

published 17 books, Grow the vines did, counterintuitively yielding baritone note and wet-stone minerality. www.turleywinecellars.com including Cellaring acidic wines of pH 3.3 with a deliciousness Ripe but not roasted; outstanding. Wine and From Vines that prompted one taster to remark: ‘If you Blended with 5% total of Carignan and

to Wines don’t like this wine, you don’t like wine.’ Grenache. Drink 2020-2030 Alc 15.9% Photograph:

California Zin: ones to watch

ALEXANDER VALLEY: ZIALENA ALEXANDER VALLEY: SCHERRER DRY CREEK VALLEY: KOKOMO Zialena’s roots go back to the early Fred Scherrer worked for Pinot Noir Why the name? Because owner Erik Miller 1900s, when Italian immigrant Giuseppi pioneer Tom Dehlinger in Sebastopol for is from Kokomo, Indiana. He has Mazzoni joined the Italian Swiss Colony several years before he made his first partnered with lifelong Dry Creek and became a grape farmer and vintage in 1991. He used fruit from his grape-grower Randy Peters to source winemaker. His great-grandchildren, family’s old-vine Zinfandel, which was fruit from three prestigious Zinfandel Mark and Lisa, now carry on the legacy at planted in 1912 and grown on benchland vineyards, making for a wine with their 49ha estate. Mazzoni fruit is prime in the beautiful Alexander Valley. His intriguing facets of flavour. All of stuff for the family’s own-label Zialena, style is meticulous, with a focus on Kokomo’s varietal wines have earned as well as for other local wineries. balancing ‘the angles’ (tannin, acid and rave reviews from critics since the winery non-fruit elements) and ‘the rounds’ started out in 2004. Zialena, Zinfandel, Alexander (glycerol and fruity elements). The Valley, Sonoma County 2017 93 Zinfandels are big and bold, and they Kokomo, Zinfandel, Dry Creek N/A UK www.zialena.com dance with rich fruit flavours. Valley, Sonoma County 2018 The second vintage from the 93 estate’s new winery, which Scherrer, Old & Mature Vines, Alexander N/A UK www.kokomowines.com features concrete fermenting Valley, Sonoma County 2014 92 An almost-perfect growing tanks. This beautifully crafted N/A UK www.scherrerwinery.com season in 2018 produced a wine is 100% Mazzoni-clone The vines endured drought-like conditions larger-than-average crop of Zinfandel, with black-cherry, in 2014, which resulted in thick-skinned, beautifully balanced fruit. The plum, dark-chocolate, clove and intensely concentrated berries with fresh wine spent 11 months in 20% nutmeg aromas, and cherry and plum flavours and verve from plentiful and new French oak and it opens cranberry flavours flecked with cracked succulent acidic energy. The spicy nose with Zin spice, leading to black pepper and cacao on the finish. - leaps out of the glass, partly due to ageing cherries and dark plums and finishing with aged in neutral French oak for 18 months. in 30% new oak . Drink 2020-2030 long, lingering notes of anise and dried Drink 2020-2028 Alc 14.8% Alc 14.8% herbs. Drink 2021-2028 Alc 14.9% ➢

Decanter • April 2020 | 77 California Zinfandel

SONOMA VALLEY: BEDROCK WINE CO Less than 2km south of Bucklin’s Old Hill Ranch is a vineyard planted 130 years ago by the father of publisher William Randolph Hearst – a field blend of 27 varieties, including 50% Zinfandel, plus Carignan, Mataro, and Alicante Bouschet, among others. Owners Morgan Twain-Peterson MW (the son of Ravenswood’s Zinfandel maven Joel Peterson) and Chris Cottrell bought the vineyard in 2004 and named it Bedrock.

Bedrock Wine Co, The Bedrock Heritage Red, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County 2018 93 £42.88-£47.99 (2016) AG Wines, Bowes Wine, Noble Green, NY Wines Mike McCay of Cambridge, Q Wines, Vintriloquy Remember how gobstoppers would change colour and LODI: ALQUIMISTA CELLARS He ferments using only native yeasts to flavour as you sucked them? Long-time Pinot Noir superstar Greg La enhance the nuances of terroir. This layered beauty is like that Follette and his business partner Patrick – first full of blackberries, then black Dillon make wine from Jessie’s Grove McCay Cellars, Jupiter Zinfandel, plums, citrus and dried herbs, all hung on Vineyard, planted in 1888 to Zinfandel, Lodi, San Joaquin County 2016 91 a solid acid core. It’s intense, but nothing Carignan, Flame Tokay, Black Prince, N/A UK www.mccaycellars.com in it is raisined or screechy. A field blend of and . After the Cola, tobacco and exotic sandalwood up to 27 varieties, based on 50% Zinfandel Flame Tokay’s whole clusters are perfume the nose, while a mix of black with about 20% Carignan and 5% Mataro. fermented, La Follette goes through the cherry, red raspberry, a hint of hazelnuts, Drink 2022-2028 Alc 14.5% must and crushes them by hand. The plus the soft tannins typical of Zinfandel wines are like the best you’ve fill the mouth. The 2016 vintage was NAPA VALLEY: MIKE & MOLLY HENDRY ever had. exceptional and shows its stuff in this Napa Valley’s climate gets progressively wine. Drink 2020-2025 Alc 14.2% cooler going south. At the far southern Alquimista Cellars, Jessie’s end is the Coombsville sub-appellation, Grove, Lodi, San Joaquin LODI: ST AMANT influenced by the San Pablo bay’s cold County 2018 91 Step back in time by sampling the waters. That’s where 10ha of a Zinfandel- N/A UK www.alquimistacellars. Mohr-Fry Ranch Old Vine Zinfandel based field blend were planted in 1905 com produced by winemaker Stuart Spencer (now known as RW Moore Vineyard). Whole-berry fermentation at St Amant in the heart of the Lodi AVA. Today, Mike and Molly Hendry turn those yields a wine that’s floral, These vineyards were planted between grapes into a sturdy wine that changes its estery, ebullient and ‘balletic’, 1901 and 1945 on their own roots in sandy flavour profile depending on the vintage, says Greg La Follette, with Sacramento delta soil, which faces less but is always fresh and fruity. bright cherry-berry red-fruit risk of phylloxera. Old Zin clones benefit flavours and signature Zin from cool nights and warm days, and are Mike & Molly Hendry, RW spiciness. The overall impression is light picked ripe to create a rough-and-ready Moore Vineyard Zinfandel, and lively, in a wine made up of 86% wine – like great-grandad used to drink. Coombsville, Napa Valley, Zinfandel with a blend of Carignan, Flame Napa County 2017 91 Tokay, Black Prince and Mission varieties. St Amant, Mohr-Fry Ranch Old N/A UK www.mikeandmollyhendry. Drink 2020-2025 Alc 14.9% Vine Zinfandel, Lodi, San com Joaquin County 2017 89 A blend of 95% Zinfandel and LODI: MCCAY CELLARS N/A UK www.stamantwine.com 1% each of Petite Sirah, Owner and winemaker Mike McCay Here’s Zin in the old style: ripe, Carignan and Mourvèdre as launched his label in 2007. He is widely chewy, blustery, bold and well as 2% of the rare Cabernet respected for his terroir-driven single- packed with tarry, earthy Pfeffer. In some years it shows vineyard bottlings, including his Jupiter flavours. A bit rough around the red fruits like raspberry and cherry; in Vineyard Zinfandel. The vineyard is 6ha, edges, but you might like it that others, dark fruits like black cherries and planted in the 1930s to 100% Zinfandel. way. Flavours are reminiscent of blackberries. The vines are dry-farmed, Its wine crackles with acid bones and fruit the sweet and thorny giving small, peppery, intense berries. flesh. McCay’s approach is ‘hands on in blackberries slowly taking over California. Drink 2020-2028 Alc 15.5% the vineyard, hands off in the winery’. Drink 2020-2025 Alc 15.8% D

78 | April 2020 • Decanter