Lot 33 2023 Dry Creek Valley Old Vine Zinfandel

WINE FUTURE BOTTLING NOVEMBER 20

Eureka!

I've been searching for great Zinfandel for a while now and finally hit the jackpot!

Over the years, I've come to know many of the custom crush GM's who handle hundreds of small producers including many wealthy hobbyists who either dabble in the business or make a couple hundred cases from their little vineyard to share with clients.

This wine comes from the latter world, a successful Bay Area tech consultant who owns some acreage of 50+-year-old, head-pruned Zinfandel vines in Dry Creek. And that is about all I know other than, apparently, he is a really nice guy according to the GM of this particular facility who sent me the samples.

So, who actually made the wine I am not sure; often in these facilities it's a combination of assistant winemakers working in conjunction with brand ownership. Regardless, this is a very high-end production facility and this is very high quality wine so clearly, whoever did make this wine, knew what they were doing - it's a fantastic Zinfandel. 

I have very little of this as there were only a few barrels available. I don't know what this gentleman sells his wine for (or, if he does at all), but, from a quality perspective, I would definitely put this up there in the realm of the $50-$60 Old Vine Zinfandel bottlings like Rafanelli or Dry Creek Vineyard. I think its a great deal at $149/case DELIVERED.

Classic, brambly old-vine bouquet of briary blackberry, boysenberry and raspberry complexed with exotic spice underpinned with vanilla, black pepper and an amalgam of fresh raisins and tootsie roll chocolate. Ripe and silky smooth on entry turning deep, dark, robust and absolutely delicious but beautifully attenuated across the palate with perfectly ripe blackberry and raspberry fruit mingle with brown sugar and a Medjool date underpinning. As the wine opens up, it brightens on the palate with damson plum and cherry notes keeping things fresh and vibrant yet always sumptuous. 

Final blend TBD but tasting notes should be accurate regardless. We have some great Calistoga Petite Sirah in bbl. and likely to blend in a couple points of PS.
~50% new American oak
Alc ~14.8
80-90 cases projected...EXACT BOTTLING DATE TBD, projected Nov 20