2017 Zinfandel

Cooper Vineyard, Amador

TASTING NOTES (Updated January 2022): Black tea, leather, and vanilla candy aromas, with the classic jammy blueberry and blackberry fruit of Zinfandel. Medium structure and a tart berry backbone, and flavors now more plummy than red fruit and tannins smoother with less of the spicy pepper character we tasted upon initial release.

WINEMAKING NOTES: The grapes came in with lignified (ripe) stems, which is not always the case but allows us to include some stems in the fermentation for additional structure and character without them providing an overly astringent character. We chose to do a 20% whole cluster fermentation and destemmed the rest. Fermentation proceeded with daily punch downs then was pressed to barrel for aging.

FOOD PAIRING: This wine will pair excellently with foods that have bold flavors and rich textures, like baked penne pasta with fontina and prosciutto, ribs with Zinfandel-cherry barbecue sauce, hearty pizza, grilled sausages, and lasagna.

AGING: Aged for 22 months in 100% New Oak of which 50% was American and 50% was French.