An opaque, intriguing history

America’s oldest vineyards are a sight to behold.

Marked by gnarled old vines planted in the 1880s, often by Italian immigrants, they provide a palpable sense of history in this so-called New World.

Many of them are field blends, the common practice at the time – a melange that may include Alicante Bouschet, Palomino, Carignan, Mataro, Syrah or Petite Sirah.

The Old Patch at Ridge’s Lytton Springs estate, first planted in 1882, includes 24 different grape varieties. The foundation, though, of these old sites is almost always Zinfandel.

‘The Dickerson vineyard in Napa was planted in the 1920s, and it’s 100% Zinfandel,’ Joel Peterson, ‘the Godfather of Zin’, tells me, while we’re standing in his old-vine Sonoma site, Bedrock vineyard.

‘The very old vineyards, like this one or Old Hill, are a mix of more than 20 varieties.

They were some of the first vineyards planted after phylloxera (both during the 1880s), so they really leaned on an old way of doing things.’

Once thought to be native to the US, Zinfandel’s origins have long been muddied.

For many years, it was believed to be closely related to the Italian variety Primitivo, maybe hailing from Puglia.

However, DNA testing at the University of California, Davis, chased its origins across the Adriatic to the coast of Croatia.

It turns out that not only are California’s long-standing signature variety and Primitivo genetically identical, but both of those grapes are also genetically identical to Dalmatia’s Crljenak Kaštelanski (also known as Tribidrag).

Peaks and valleys

The notion of quality in Zinfandel has also had a tumultuous history, particularly recently. It was the original American fine wine.

Early California bottlings of Zinfandel were sold from trains on the east coast and they made waves at the Paris Exposition of 1889.

Over time, though, its reputation has waned, owing in many ways to the great commercial success of White Zinfandel (the inexpensive, typically not dry ‘blush’-style rosés) and a lingering reputation and perhaps unfair stereotyping as a one-dimensional wine of bombast, high alcohol and little else.

‘Somewhere in the 14%-15% range is where the variety hits its stride,’ Peterson instructs. ‘There it has acid, edge and spice without the unfortunate gloopy, overripe character.’

Through all of that, it remains California’s third most planted variety, behind Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

Joel’s son Morgan Twain-Peterson MW is at the forefront in efforts to preserve many of northern California’s old-vine sites.

His commitment to forward-thinking viticulture, regenerative and organic practices, and a fresh take on the wine his father made famous, are evident in the brilliance and site clarity of his Bedrock wines.

Thanks to folks such as Twain-Peterson, Tegan Passalacqua at Turley and the team at ArnotRoberts, old-vine Zinfandel is resurgent.

While America’s fine wine regions are often left referencing their Old World counterparts, Zinfandel offers something uniquely, historically American, in spite of its Adriatic origins.

Pursehouse's pick of America's most enticing Zinfandel

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Sherman Thacher has occasionally pulled his young son, Cody, out of school to help with harvest and light winemaking – an ironic twist, given that Thacher’s great-grandfather founded the well-known Thacher School in Ojai.

The school was known for its balance of academics and rugged outdoor learning, including the care of horses. In the Thacher family, it seems, learning has always taken many forms, and true to the family tradition, it happens through hands-on experience.

Sherman Thacher’s personal education started outside the classroom, growing up on an orange orchard in Ojai, surrounded by nature, where his mother rang a triangle to call him and his brothers back to the house for meals.

He later attended a British boarding school, thanks to his English mother’s influence, before finishing high school in Santa Ynez.

This was not a typical high school experience, as the students lived in log cabins and chopped wood to heat both their rooms and the water for their afternoon showers.

To this day, Thacher heats his home with a wood-burning stove.

Scroll down for a selection of 10 wines from Thacher Winery

From beer brewer to Paso winemaker

As a student at the University of California at Davis, Thacher didn’t study oenology, but tagged along with friends in the fermentation lab. There, he tasted student-made beer and wine, which sparked an early interest.

Beer was his first career, and after a few years, he became brewmaster at Los Gatos Brewing Company. In 1993, Thacher produced his first wine with a friend, an old-vine Zinfandel from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Having spent nearly a decade in brewing, wine steadily took over as his focus.

By the early 2000s, Thacher and his wife were ready to leave Silicon Valley behind. In 2004, they bought land in Paso Robles’ Adelaida District, moving there two years later.

Thacher’s first vintage, made from purchased grapes, was in 2004. By 2006, He realised that to truly build a sustainable business, he needed a physical home, a tasting room where he could connect with customers. ‘The learning curve was steep,’ he admits.

Their initial land purchase was the Kentucky Ranch, once home to a breeding facility for Quarter horses and later a horse rescue programme.

The property, planted in 2007, was untouched land, set in the limestone-rich hills of Paso Robles’ Adelaida District. The site offered ideal conditions for growing structured wines, particularly Rhône varieties and heritage Zinfandel.

Thacher Winery & Vineyard: At a glance

Founded: 2004

Owners: Sherman & Michelle Thacher

Annual Production: 5,000 cases

Total hectares planted to vines: 

8 ha planted in total (breakdown below)

2ha Kentucky Ranch Vineyard

6ha Homestead Hill Vineyard

Appellation: Paso Robles AVA – Adelaida District & Willow Creek District

Estate vineyards: Kentucky Ranch Vineyard 2007-present (most have been replanted)

Homestead Hill Vineyard 2017-present

Key wine varieties: Syrah, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Cinsault

Winemaker: Sherman Thacher. Assistant Winemaker Brenna Hill.

An early Zin focus

Today, Thacher Winery and Vineyard produces around 20 different wines that reflect both curiosity and intention.

Before getting married, the couple would go wine tasting in Paso Robles on weekends, which often centred around the Zinfandels that dominated the region at the time.

‘When we first started thinking seriously about Paso, I really thought I was going to open a winery with four or five different Zins,’ Thacher recalls.

In those early days, Thacher’s focus was on Zinfandel and Syrah. But curiosity and the evolving regional landscape expanded the possibilities.

Tablas Creek was just beginning to make waves, and Rhône varieties were gaining a foothold in the region. Inspired by this shift, Thacher soon added Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Viognier to his lineup.

The path to a wide-ranging portfolio had begun.

A passion for variety

At Kentucky Ranch, he eventually planted 1ha as a field blend of 11 different varieties from southern France and Spain. A testament to his exploratory approach.

‘We really want them [the grapes] to speak for themselves,’ Thacher says. ‘If a variety has certain characteristics, we want to find a vineyard or produce it in a way that expresses those characteristics rather than mutes them or turns them into something else.’

Josh Beckett, owner and winemaker at Thibido Winery, who has known Thacher for 30 years, agrees. ‘He is more about expressing the fruit and vineyard, and has created his own style. Thacher is creative and experimental. Almost to a fault sometimes.’

Working with such a broad mix of grapes isn’t just practical, it’s fulfilling. ‘There are so many things to learn. Working with different varietals and seeing how they perform and what kind of flavour profiles you can get out of them is really exciting,’ says Thacher. ‘It’s like making a new recipe at home.’

Daniel Sinton, owner of Shell Creek Vineyard, where Thacher sources old-vine Chenin Blanc and Valdiguié, recounts the first time he tried the carbonic Valdiguié made by Thacher.

‘It was one of my memorable moments in wine. Bringing these types of methods to the Paso area and to broader American wine is a cornerstone of why I think he is so great,’ he says.

Thacher acknowledges the gravitational pull of this kind of experimentation, likening his path to other varietal obsessives.

‘I think of people like Randall Grahm (Bonny Doon Vineyard, Popelochum, Language of Yes) or Kenneth Volk (Wild Horse, Kenneth Volk Vineyards) who went down the same rabbit hole,’ he says.

‘I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not. It’s a little addictive. Once you get going, it’s a little hard to turn off because there are just so many things to know and explore.’

Epiphany

Paso Robles has long been known for its bold red wines. Even when well-balanced, they tend to showcase powerful structural elements – high alcohol, full body, intense aromatics, concentrated fruit, and sometimes, firm tannins.

Like many producers in the region, Thacher’s style initially followed suit, crafting some notably big wines. Reflecting back, he admits, ‘I taste through some of them now, and they’re out of my norm and not my favourite.’

A major shift for Thacher came in 2013. A big crop of Viognier hadn’t sold as much as he had hoped, and they were behind, but they were contracted for the fruit the following year.

The only option was to make something else out of it.

Thacher made a call to a friend in Santa Cruz and asked for insight on how to make sparkling wine. His friend shared basic information such as target brix, TA, and pH levels.

Thacher picked the fruit accordingly and sent it to Santa Cruz for tirage bottling.

One 60-gallon (227L) drum didn’t fit in the tank and stayed behind, resting in the cellar for a year.

There weren’t solid plans for the leftover wine, but over time, it evolved into a non-vintage bottling. The results surprised them. ‘It was bright, alive, and vibrant.’

Because it had been picked early, as one does for bubbles, the wine had energy and lift. ‘It took me to a whole different spot,’ Thacher says.

‘That moment was my epiphany for what we’re doing now. This is where I should be picking stuff. Not later.’

Seeking a lighter side of Paso

The shift began with white wines, but reds soon followed.

That one vineyard decision reshaped his entire winemaking philosophy: rather than manipulating wine in the cellar, why not simply pick the grapes when chemistry and flavour aligned and let the fruit speak for itself from vineyard to bottle?

It wasn’t an overnight transformation, but a steady evolution. Today, Thacher wines are made with native fermentations, no water, nutrients, acid, or enzymes, and only minimal effective SO₂.

‘Everything you need is in the grape, if you pick it on the right day,’ says Thacher.

Thacher always had an, ‘early vision for less is more,’ says Beckett.

Thacher finds it rewarding when guests taste through the lineup and see a theme from start to finish, regularly commenting that everything doesn’t taste the same.

From delicate, lighter styles to bold, hearty reds, the common thread is a sense of freshness and liveliness – even in wines that are otherwise vastly different.

‘It’s about good wine that doesn’t need to be manipulated in any way. It’s not about making low alcohol wine. That’s just the result,’ says Thacher.

The next generation

Out of his three children, Thacher’s 16-year-old son, Cody, has already had his hands, as much as a child can, in five vintages.

He started when he was just nine, assisting his father with a small block affectionately called the C-Block, consisting of about 80 own-rooted, dry-farmed vines tucked into a corner of the property, planted with a mix of varieties.

In the early Thacher days, Cody would wake up and head straight to the vineyard to help with harvesting and sorting fruit. He even missed a bit of school during harvest season.

Thacher recalls his wife pulling up in the minivan, the door sliding open as Cody dashed out to the winery to partake in a punchdown. He’d also squeeze in another one before dinner.

Thacher bought him a tiny press, which Cody proudly maintains himself. Over the past five years, the block has produced anywhere from half to a full barrel each vintage. Now that high school and sports are involved, it has become a bit trickier, but the foundation is clearly in place.

Thacher remains a student of the vine, still learning, still experimenting, and always letting the vineyard lead the way, with the next chapter yet to be written.

Ten wines from Thacher:

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For a time, Zinfandel was thought of as indigenous to the United States. Still, that commonly held belief was proven premature as the connections to Italian Primitivo proved the two nearly an exact genetic match.

Though that association with California has not always been a positive one, Zinfandel has long been an important part of Californian fine wine, and the variety is seeing a resurgence.

Despite its Adriatic origins, Zinfandel may have come to the United States through Long Island but via Vienna, Austria.

Conventional wisdom holds that Zinfandel made its way to California with those seeking their fortunes as part of the Gold Rush in the 1850s. Perhaps the first Zinfandel of note was made by Joseph W. Osborne from a vineyard in Oak Knoll District, now one of the sub-appellations of Napa Valley. The praise his wine garnered resulted in the broad planting of the grape, which grew to the most planted in California in the early 1900s.

America’s great mistake of Prohibition would destroy many, though not all, of these old Zinfandel vineyards and set the grape and American wine back decades. The historical setback would derail the development of California’s fine wine culture.

Many vineyards that remained after Prohibition were located in California’s Central Valley, a region known for quantity production rather than the production of fine wine. Napa Valley, with wines showing promise in the mid-1800s, wouldn’t come to international prominence for more than another 100 years.

As California’s reputation for wine progressed, Zinfandel found itself squeezed out in many places by Cabernet Sauvignon. This trend, coupled with the soaring commercial success of the sickly sweet, blush wine known as ‘White Zin’, has saddled the once noble and benchmark variety in California with a poor reputation.

‘It’s no secret that California Zinfandel has been subject to misunderstanding,’ says Frank Family Vineyards winemaker Todd Graff. ‘In the 20th century, a majority of California Zinfandel planted was either overly jammy and high in alcohol or semi-sweet and pink. There are many of us trying to shift that narrative today.’

Yet it is California’s Zinfandel legacy which may save it and return it to its rightful place atop America’s pantheon of fine wines.

‘Old vineyards produce some of the world’s richest, most characterful and delicious wines’, says Don Hartford, co-owner of Hartford Family Winery. ‘In California, we have 100-year-old Zinfandel vineyards that display intense aromatic, flavour and textural complexities.’

‘California Zinfandel is remarkable for the age of its vineyards, the people who farm them and the vibrancy of the Zinfandel varietal. For these reasons, I think California Zinfandel will be important for years to come,’ Hartford concludes.

Tasting notes and scores for 10 American Zinfandels

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Foundational to the notion of terroir is the story of Burgundy. It is a relationship between Pinot Noir and the monks’ investment in defining place, identifying growing conditions in a complex tapestry of climat and cru that has inspired winemakers worldwide.

Countless vintners have sought to replicate its magic elsewhere, planting Pinot around the globe. With it has developed an assertion almost unquestioned – Pinot Noir is the grape most expressive of terroir. But in wines grown outside the Côte d’Or, we rarely find the magic of eastern France. If we can learn a lesson from Burgundy, it’s that the world’s great wines cannot be replicated by relocating their vines. The newer region must build its own defining relationship between the grapes best suited to its conditions and those who invest in them. Burgundy’s climate cannot be found in California; nor limestone with year-round rain.

In California, history has demonstrated no grape is better suited to the varied conditions of the state than Zinfandel. Its ability to adapt exceeds that of Pinot even. It matures successfully in every growing region, with vineyards dotting the landscape from its southern border to north of Mendocino, from the Pacific coast to the eastern foothills, the lower elevation river valleys to its mountain peaks.

Tasting through three examples from Turley’s 2019 vintage illustrates the variety’s diversity. DuPratt vineyard grows mere miles from the ocean at 450m on Mendocino Ridge, surrounded by redwoods. The wine smells of wildflowers and bramble with resinous forest and stony undertones. The tannin is corded but refined, like the texture of shantung silk, the acidity mouthwatering.

From the desert slopes of Howell Mountain at 790m on the eastern side of Napa Valley, the wine of Rattlesnake Ridge is inky and brooding with earthy notes of graphite, the tannin melting across the palate into a long, savoury finish.

From Amador County in the Sierra Foothills, home to the oldest vineyards in the state, Judge Bell grows around 450m in a rolling plateau near the Gold Rush town of Plymouth. The wine brings notes of orange zest, dried rose, crushed berries and a mix of fresh herbs. The tannin is fine-boned while abundant, the wine’s character more reminiscent of classic Barolo than the stereotype of high-octane Zin.

Classic wineries such as Turley, Ridge, Robert Biale, Frog’s Leap, Carlisle and Bedrock, as well as winemaker Joel Peterson, first through Ravenswood and now Once & Future, have invested decades in demonstrating the site-expressive power of Zinfandel. And the best can age. A quality Zin readily lasts 10 years. Exceptional sites can develop in bottle for decades, assisted by the elevated acidity natural to the variety.

The grape does have a troubled history. Producers who indulged in its potential for opulence created a perception of jammy fruit and alcohol, reaching as much as 16%. It was a style that peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s but generated a stereotype the variety still struggles with today.

Zinfandel and Pinot Noir have one thing in common. Picked overripe, they lose their terroir expression in favour of excess fruit mistaken as California sunshine. It is a fault of winemaking rather than variety or place. The grape most readily finds its balance at alcohol levels out of fashion in post-Parker wine culture. Even so, celebrated Zinfandels from Ridge, an icon of well-balanced wines, tend to be between 13.5%-15%.

Over the last 10 years, Zinfandel has gone through a market correction. Its least interesting vines have been pulled in favour of more lucrative varieties. Farming costs have driven out lower-end price points. Sites with a track record of quality remain. Classic producers have been joined by newer brands looking to capture the energy of California’s oldest vineyards with fresh enthusiasm.

The changes have driven an increase in quality single-vineyard wines. But unlike Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir, prices for the best Zinfandels remain accessible. The result is a category of wine that, compared with other red varieties, delivers on quality while offering the opportunity to taste California terroir. Let’s celebrate a future of Zinfandel as fine wine.

What I’ve been drinking

Over dinner with friends, the Pierrick Bouley, Volnay 1er Cru Champans 2019 (£125.19 Latimer Vintners) was still young, yet the wine offered beautiful depth and potential with muscular tannin and pleasing finesse. It opened beautifully, delivering layered fruits, savoury and earthy notes, accents of cracked vanilla bean and spices. Pierrick took the family reins in 2014 and has continued to refine the farming and winemaking since. His reputation will only grow, and the wines no doubt become even more refined.

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Poised on a secluded mountaintop, just 16km (10 miles) from its mega-tech neighbour Silicon Valley, Ridge has been considered one of the pre-eminent California wine estates for the past 60 years.

Its Cabernets—especially the one from the famed Monte Bello Vineyard—are coveted by collectors, never more so than after the Thirty Year Re-Enactment of the Judgment of Paris Tasting when Monte Bello came in first.

The story behind the winery’s rise to prominence is as unconventional as it is captivating.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for six new Ridge Vineyards wines

How it all began

In 1959, three Stanford Research Institute engineers– Dave Bennion, Hew Crane and Charlie Rosen– bought a piece of land on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

It was to be a weekend retreat from the trio’s day jobs in Silicon Valley, where silicon-based microchips had just been invented—microchips that would revolutionise electronics and make modern computers possible.

Vines had been planted on the remote property in 1885 by an Italian doctor named Osea Perrone, who also used the local limestone (a rare soil in California) to build a winery. Perrone’s winery went bankrupt, and the property was left abandoned after Prohibition. But some of the vineyards managed to hang on. A theologian named William Short bought them in the 1940s.

It’s unclear if Short made wine or just sold his grapes, but in 1959, he sold the property to Bennion, Crane and Rosen. The group bought the 32ha for £1,500 per ha. (Today, prime vineyard land in northern California sells upward of £1,095,000 per ha).

The three engineers decided to rename the vineyard Ridge for the precarious 823m volcanic ridge on which it perched. Below the vines sat something else—California’s perilous San Andreas fault, the 1,200km active volcanic fault line created by the Pacific Plate as it grates against the North American Plate. If they were afraid of an earthquake, they didn’t show it.

Ridge Vineyards at a glance

Founded 1959

Owners Japanese pharmaceutical company Otsuka

Annual Production 960,000 to 1,200,000 bottles

Number of separate wines approximately 30 (most under 60,000 bottles each and some exclusively for wine club members.)

Wine Club Members 18,000

That first year, Bennion, Crane and Rosen made a single barrel of Cabernet from old vines on the property. Three years later, they released their first commercial Cabernet—vintage 1962—labelling the bottles by hand with the help of adhesive tape. Paul Draper, who eventually became Ridge’s winemaker, would later say that the 1962 Ridge Cabernet was the closest wine to a First Growth Bordeaux he’d ever tasted.

The vintage may have been great, but everything about that 1962 was atypical. In California in the Sixties, a dry table wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon was a rarity.

The California wine industry had been slow to recover from the devastation of phylloxera, the First World War, the Great Depression, Prohibition and the Second World War.

From the 1930s to the 1970s, the wine industry was tiny, disorganised, and, for the most part, operated on a shoestring. Most California wine at the time was cheap and sweet, sometimes fortified. It wasn’t until 1968 in the US that dry table wine outsold sweet wine for the first time in nearly a century.

For its part, Cabernet Sauvignon was a minor grape, and what little existed in the 1960s was mainly planted 190km north of Santa Cruz in the Napa Valley. Zinfandel was the leading red, and some of it (from dry-farmed, head-pruned vines nearly a century old) sold for peanuts.

Paul Draper arrives

In 1969, 10 years into their hobby-turned-business, Bennion, Crane and Rosen got even more serious. They hired Paul Draper.

On the face of it, Draper, who’d been a philosophy major at Stanford, was an unconventional choice. His plan to get a viticulture and enology degree failed when he realised he was terrible at chemistry and found it ‘boring.’

Draper had hung out with Italian winemakers when he was a ‘civilian liaison’ there during the Vietnam war and had worked in Chile making and exporting Chilean wine to the US; but he had no formal winemaking training.

One of Ridge’s founders heard Draper give a talk on Chilean wine. He liked that Draper was a minimalist and purist. He had learned winemaking by reading and watching European winemakers.

The book that proved most influential (which Draper read in French) was Traitement Pratique des Vins Par Les Méthodes Bordelaise (Practical Winemaking by the Bordeaux Method), written in 1867 by Raymond-Lucien Boireau.

Boireau believed that great wines were based on techniques used by the First Growths in the 19th century, which is virtually no ‘technique ‘ at all. Doing as little as possible was Boireau’s creed.

The shocking judgement and re-judgment

Draper had made only two vintages of Monte Bello before making the 1971, the vintage that Steven Spurrier and Patricia Gallagher chose to be one of the five red wines in the 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting.

It was the only California red wine that was not from Napa Valley. The Ridge Monte Bello came in fifth in that original 1976 Paris tasting; the Stags Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet had come in first.

As has been widely written, the French judges rationalised the results by asserting that California wines, so fruit-laden and textural, would, of course, be expected to show well when the wines were young. But decades hence? The judges were sure that French wines, once mature, would mercilessly outperform the California competition.

Spurrier and Gallagher were keen to put the idea to the test. In 2006, they held a Thirty Year Re-Enactment of the Paris Tasting. Which included the same vintages of the same wines, but each was now 30 years old.

The tasting was held simultaneously in Paris, London, and Napa Valley, with judges in each location. This time, the 1971 Ridge Monte Bello came in first, 18 points ahead of the number two wine Stags Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 1973, and 32 points ahead of the top-ranked Bordeaux—Château Mouton Rothschild 1970.

I was in the audience in Napa Valley, sitting beside Margrit Mondavi. We were both tasting when the results were announced, and Margrit cried.

A unique terroir and definitive style

The Santa Cruz Mountains rise from the central coast of California in a tangle of rugged mountain tops, canyons, craggy slopes, knolls and valleys. The region is about an hour and a half’s drive south of San Francisco along California’s iconic Highway 101.

Floating in off the ocean, the air has a surging freshness to it. Draper and his protégé John Olney believe that cool Pacific air is one of the keys to Monte Bello’s style and success. ‘We’ve always been a terroir-driven, rather than winemaker-driven or varietal-driven winery,’ says Olney. ‘Cold air hitting Monte Bello ridge is what makes Ridge, Ridge. That and limestone.’

Indeed, the limestone-laced soils in this part of California are highly unusual. Cold air and limestone may also explain why, in a blind tasting, Monte Bello Cabernet can often be picked out as the one Cabernet ‘not from Napa.’

But there’s another reason, too: American oak. Ridge’s wines have always been aged in American, rather than French oak. ‘I don’t like the idea of a California wine’s quality being dependent on the oak from another country,’ says Draper.

But his decision to use American oak goes beyond chauvinism. When Draper began at Ridge, he read about experiments the University of Bordeaux had held with the First Growths at the turn of the 20th century.

The 10-year studies compared the wines aged in six types of oak—three from the Baltics, one from North America, one identified as being from Yugoslavia, and one from the centre of France.

In the experiments, the First Growth wines aged in Baltic oak uniformly came in first, followed by those aged in American oak. The First Growth wines aged in French oak came in last.

‘That was all the evidence I needed,’ says Draper, adding that Baltic oak was no longer available after the two world wars. Of course, despite the French oak’s last-place showing, First Growth winemakers continued to use it. ‘They were chauvinists just like me,’ he says.

The Zin connection

While Monte Bello Cabernet was Ridge’s ticket to global fame, the winery’s Zinfandels have been equally famous in the US. Though Draper would hate hearing them described as cult wines, they all have cult followings despite being among the most expensive Zinfandels in the country.

Depending on the year, Ridge makes anywhere from 10 to 13 of them, mostly from warm pockets in Sonoma. They are all based on dry-farmed old vines, and in most cases, the vineyards are field blends of up to 23 different historic varieties, with Zinfandel dominant.

‘The nuances we get from old vines and field blends give our Zinfandels complexity, depth, and the ability to age,’ says Draper. ‘When I tasted the homemade old-vine Zinfandels that Bennion, Crane, and Rosen made in the 1960s, those wines blew me away with their beauty, balance, and intensity. ‘Zinfandel has become—along with Cabernet–one of the great loves of my life.’

Paul Draper, now 86 years old, made 46 vintages at Ridge and is currently Chairman. John Olney became Ridge’s COO and chief winemaker in 2021.

Ridge Vineyards: six new releases tasted and rated

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Winemakers Steve Alden of Murder Ridge and Dan Dooling of Mariah Vineyards maintained a strict code of silence as they petitioned for the creation of the Mendocino Ridge AVA – the first and only American appellation with a non-contiguous boundary.

In the 1990s, a cabal of vintners pushing to create the neighbouring Yorkville Highlands AVA wanted to include the ridgetops farmed by Alden and Dooling in their petition. Leveraging old newspaper and magazine articles to establish precedent, they proved the in-land meadows and valleys of Yorkville Highlands differed in terroir and climate from their timber-type, coastal ridgetop sites.

Their covert efforts paid off. On 26 December 1997, there were no objections during the commenting period and Mendocino Ridge achieved AVA status.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of 19 wines from Mendocino Ridge

In American Wine, Jancis Robinson MW and Linda Murphy describe Mendocino Ridge as an ‘utter oddity of an AVA’. A closer look reveals it’s more unique than odd given its unorthodox boundaries, and perhaps misunderstood because of its remoteness.

Originally part of the North Coast and Mendocino County AVAs, it is the harbinger of a small, but growing faction of grape growers who see its rugged, unruly and treacherous terrain as the frontier of a special coastal terroir capable of producing an eminently graceful and ageworthy style of northern California wine – for both whites and reds.

The remoteness and rough terrain make it hard to manage winery operations within the AVA boundaries. Just four grower-producers brave it. These include Baxter Winery, Drew, Phillips Hill Winery and Mariah Vineyards & Winery. Many other notable producers purchase grapes and make wines elsewhere (see fact box below).

While Zinfandel was king for more than a century, the pendulum today swings toward Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which command higher prices and also produce better wines.

For the most part, Mendocino Ridge Pinot Noir, Syrah and Zinfandel wines show a pale to medium hue, which belies the rich textures and layers of fruit beneath. The Chardonnays are crisp, mineral and bright, though some vintners, including Alden, are toying with riper styles.

The best examples take advantage of the longer sunlight hours above the fog line and offer vivid natural acidity and robust tannins. ‘And can age a very long time’, asserts Drew Wines’ Jason Drew.

An archipelago of vineyards

The Mendocino Ridge AVA is a collection of 24 ridgetops, stretching across 106,189ha, spanning 58km long and 24km wide. The AVA’s non-contiguous boundary, however, is the result of a distinct elevation technicality: only vineyards at or above 366m (1,200ft) fall within the boundaries of the AVA, which amounts to 35,400ha – roughly 2% of the entire area. Vines above the line are typically bathed in long sunlight hours and Pacific Ocean wind currents; vineyards planted below are mostly shrouded in oceanic fog.

In their petition, Dooling and Alden described the Mendocino Ridge sites as ‘cool, sun-soaked islands in the sky’. And although ‘islands in the sky’ conjures a brilliant visualisation, the oft-used nickname has been trademarked by Dooling’s daughter Nicole and son-in-law Michael Frey. So, Alden has taken to describing the AVA as a ‘vineyard archipelago’.

Whether islands or archipelagos, just 607ha to 809ha are plantable. Today, the best estimate is that just over 101ha are currently under vine and most fall within 12km to 17km of the Pacific Ocean.

Compared to other high-elevation AVAs like Fort Ross-Seaview, West Sonoma Coast or the Santa Cruz Mountains, oceanic influence on the Mendocino Ridge AVA is distinct. ‘The ridges turn toward the ocean,’ says Drew, ‘allowing for more direct wind and fog flow.’

The neighbouring cool Sonoma Coast and Sonoma County, and warmer Anderson Valley AVAs contain a mix of alluvial soil deposits, fertile valley floor soils and Goldridge series soils, whereas the ancient peaks of Mendocino Ridge are heavily wooded, and the soils are uniquely timber-type, weathered and dominated by gravelly loam, sandstone and shale.

From Italy to Burgundy

Italian settlers first came to the region in the 1800s, drawn to the intractable, harsh land for its abundance of tannin-rich tanbark which was used for tanning leather. They brought with them Zinfandel, Alicante Bouschet, Carignan, Muscat, Palomino and Malvasia vines. Zinfandel in particular thrived, due in part to higher annual rainfall and excellent drainage.

The names of the Italian immigrant families are etched into the region’s history, most obvious along Fish Rock Road on Signal Ridge – one of three primary roads crisscrossing the AVA; the others are Mountain View and Greenwood Road. All three lead due west from Highway 128 towards the coast. Fish Rock Road, in the southern portion of the AVA, became the hotbed of homesteader activity in the 1800s where the Ciapusci, Gianoli, Perli and Zeni families first planted Zinfandel.

Throughout the 1960s and ’70s, Edmeades Winery ‘helped keep those heritage Zinfandel vineyards in business’, recalls Dooling. But by the 1980s ‘Pinot Noir was blowing up in Anderson Valley’.

In the early 2000s, betting on Zinfandel proved a miscalculation for some newcomers, like Roger Scommegna, owner of Signal Ridge Vineyard, who had trouble ripening it. After a decade of replants, fires and wildlife intrusions, Scommegna was discouraged. But bit by bit he found inspiration in the Signal Ridge Pinot Noir wines produced by Jamie Kutch (Kutch Wines), Derek Rohlffs (Bravium Wines), Josh Phelps (Coil Wines) and Joanna Wells, his current winemaker. ‘It took 16 years to become an overnight success,’ Scommegna jokes.

The only way is up

For David Milner, winemaker for Donelan Wines, the Pinot Noir he buys from Perli Vineyards proves that ‘Mendocino Ridge is in a league of its own,’ due to ‘steady ripening above the inversion layer, soil composition, [and vines] surrounded by conifers.’

Winemaker Peter Seghesio of Journeyman Wine, formerly of Zinfandel icon Seghesio Family Vineyards, told Alden that Mendocino Ridge is ‘Pinot country’, capable of producing ‘potentially richer wines with more structure’, so long as the tannins are properly managed.

Vintners are rightfully getting bullish on the quality and complexity of their wines. With the average price of a Pinot Noir here about $60 (£48) and Signal Ridge Vineyard selling its top cuvée for $149 (£120), there’s nowhere to go but up – even when you’re at the ridgetop.

Mendocino Ridge at a glance

Appellation established 1997

Total AVA area The only non-contiguous American AVA; a collection of 24 ridgetops spread across more than 106,000ha. The approved grape-growing area of the AVA is restricted to the coastal ridges rising above 366m (1,200ft), which amounts to some 35,400ha, of which an estimated 607ha to 809ha are suitable for grape growing.

Current plantings about 101ha

Producers 29

Vineyard altitude 366m to 835m

Key varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Zinfandel

Soils Well-draining gravelly loam, sandstone, mudstone and shale

Climate Coastal, with a long growing season, cool, breezy summers and cold, wet winters.

Average yearly temperatures 9.4°C to 24°C

Average annual rainfall 1,000mm-2,500mm.

Noteworthy vineyards DuPratt, Fashauer, Manchester Ridge, Perli, Valenti, Signal Ridge, Sky High Ranch

Notable producers Arista, Arnot-Roberts, Auteur, Baxter, Cartograph, Coil Wines, Darling Wines, Drew, Donelan, Donkey & Goat, Edmeades, ENA Winemakers, Journeyman, La Rochelle, Las Jaras, Kutch, Mariah Vineyards, Minus Tide, Murder Ridge, Signal Ridge Vineyard, Trailmarker Wine Co, Turley, Twelve Eleven, Newton, Neal Family Vineyards, Unturned Stone, Wentworth, WindChaster, Witching Stick.

Mendocino Ridge: a guide to recent vintages

2021 Great, though low yields. Warm and dry, trending cool toward harvest. Reds and whites boast good flavour concentration without excessive alcohol. Tannins are firm and balanced. Drink 2023-2033.

2020 Warm, dry, low-yielding vintage. An early harvest was a boon for Chardonnay. Then, fires broke out on 17 August, with varying degrees of smoke impact. Many opted not to bottle; of those that did, quality is high. Drink 2022-2030.

2019 An excellent vintage. Perfect weather at fruit set, mild, moderate temperatures throughout the growing season, with no heat spikes. Wines are complex and ageworthy. Drink 2023-2035.

2018 Ageworthy vintage. Cool temperatures and a long growing season resulted in wines with fresh acidity and firm tannins. Hallmark bottlings offer lower alcohols, impressive aromatics and big flavours. Drink 2022-2035

Mendocino Ridge: five producers to know

Drew

In 2004, Jason and Molly Drew purchased their 19.7ha Faîte De Mer estate at 381m on Greenwood Ridge – the closest site in the AVA to the ocean. They didn’t plant vines until 2011, and their first estate wine debuted in 2014 (they’d been making wine from purchased grapes since 2000). Jason, who has worked at Chalone, Navarro, Luna and Babcock, is a clone fanatic. He has a makeshift nursery of Hyde and Montrachet scion wood, and meticulously selects for dominant features in his Dijon, Wente, Calera, Swan and Mount Eden clones. They produce Chardonnay, Albariño, Viognier, Syrah and Pinot Noir, with plans to plant Gamay and Chenin Blanc. From 2013 to 2019, Drew leased and farmed Valenti Ranch, but stepped away to focus on his own wines, which exhibit crystalline, pure, precise flavours with deep concentration and intensity.

Mariah Vineyards

In 1979, Dan and Vicki Dooling bought 36.5ha atop a 731m mountain and bought some Zinfandel vines. In 1983 they contracted Jed Steele at Edmeades to make the wine and by 1991 they’d established Mariah Vineyard and partnered with Brown-Forman to take over production. For 16 years the Doolings leased the name ‘Mariah’ and their grapes to the drinks giant. Meanwhile, Dan worked with Steve Alden of Perli Vineyards and Murder Ridge to write the petition that, in 1997, established the Mendocino Ridge AVA. In 2010 Brown-Forman relinquished all rights of Mariah back to the Doolings. Today Vicki makes their Zinfandels while Eglantine Chauffour (of Ena Winemakers) and Alberto Bianchi (of Newton Vineyard) produce the Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. Dan and Vicki’s son-in-law Michael Frey heads up their regenerative agriculture programme and in 2021 Mariah became the Savory Institute’s first global Land to Market vineyard.

Perli Vineyards and Murder Ridge

In 1989, photojournalist Steve Alden began managing the 1,173ha timber ranch his grandfather had bought in the 1950s. Seeing the potential, he planted Zinfandel vines in 1994 and named it Alden Ranch. In 2004, Steve and his brother John, a co-owner, renamed it Perli Vineyards and established five blocks: Potato Patch, Perli, Murder Ridge, Steve’s Ridge and Hogpen. Today, Perli is one of the top sites in the Mendocino Ridge AVA. In 2013, Alden debuted his Murder Ridge label: rich, mineral-bright Chardonnay; concentrated, structured Pinots; and opulent Zinfandel and Syrahs. Bryan Kvamme, former winemaker at Martinelli Winery, consults on the reds; Lisa Bishop Forbes, formerly of Chalk Hill and Dry Creek, consults on the whites.

Signal Ridge Vineyard

At age 38, flush with ‘monopoly money’ after selling a company that merged into Realtor.com, Roger Scommegna bought 16ha atop the 835m Signal Ridge in 1999. With 7.6 plantable hectares, the original Zinfandel is gone in favour of Burgundian varieties. ‘There’s a real rustic elegance to the wines of these ridgetop vineyards,’ says winemaker and viticulturist Joanna Wells. A former associate winemaker for Kutch Wines, Wells also worked under Jamie Kutch at Signal Ridge from 2015 to 2018. She’s currently grafting Signal Ridge vines over to heritage California selections of Mt Eden, Hyde and original Old Wente clones. Today, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes – mostly dry-farmed to organic specifications – yield pure, pristine, finesse-driven wines. A grower and producer to watch.

Wentworth Vineyard & Ranch

Self-taught winemaker Mark Wentworth studied at St Andrews University in Scotland and passed on a career in pharmaceutical advertising in favour of working at breweries and small dairy and cattle farms in Vermont and Maine. He fled to California to ‘chase my vision of small-scale viticulture’. In 2015, he and wife Katie planted 4.6ha of vines on a 24ha property next to Drew wines. Jason Drew became Mark’s winemaking mentor, helping him make the first Wentworth wine in 2018. By 2019, Mark was making everything himself, from organically farmed Chardonnay, Grüner Veltliner and Pinot Noir. The wines strike a balance of impressive concentration, lightness and complex structure.

Mendocino Ridge: 19 wines to try from this unique AVA

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I’d like to say we took advantage of the lockdown and its related commotion to do a stock-take, explore new avenues, turn over intriguing stones, widen and deepen our drinking, taking careful notes as we went. Sadly, no. I won’t say we got stuck in a rut, but we did tend to stick with comfort wines – and “comfort”, in our case, means familiar.

Regular readers of this quarterly column can probably guess the labels on the resulting empties. We have a wider range of comfort foods, I’m afraid, than comfort wines. Happily, professional duties deflect me from total monotony. I’m delighted to be seduced by something from the Cape, or lured away to the deep south of Italy. I’ve learned (or been reminded) that Aglianico is one of the great red varieties, that Syrah can be succulent in Sicily, that Spain has a lot more to offer than Tempranillo – and they can grow Pinot Noir in Patagonia, too. I’ve formed a bond with Grillo and flirted with Verdicchio. I’ve had a good conversation with Zinfandel, and Trollinger has caught my eye.

Riesling, of course, has always been in my Comfort Corner, but it comes in so many guises, from prickly to a deep massage, that it can’t get boring. Sylvaner has sometimes stood in for Chablis, and the Marsanne/Roussanne ménage for Chardonnay. In fact, if one region has been making Bordeaux jealous it is the Rhône, in all its parts, and realms adjacent. From considering Châteauneuf- du-Pape a wine for rich dishes on cold days, I’ve been meeting bottles of lively refreshment. And it doesn’t stop in Provence; it goes right down to the Spanish border. If there is any region I still struggle with it’s California, and after many years I’m convinced it’s the taste of the local market that departs from mine, rather than the climate and terroir.

Which bottles, then, have we in this house been emptying at speed? You’ve already guessed claret, and you’re right about the Médoc; Margaux and the southern half for light-heated delight, Pauillac for deeper meaning. The Right Bank when the smell from the stove is richest. Much less in numbers from Burgundy (Chablis apart; we need a pipeline from the Yonne), but more and more from Roussillon and neighbourhood, for white wines as well as red. Bubbly and Sherry compete as appetisers, with as many bubbles coming from this side of the Channel as the other.

That, I have to admit, is about the only change.

Hugh Johnson OBE is a world-renowned wine writer. This column first appeared in Decanter magazine’s June 2022 issue.

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This is the story of two vineyards: Dusi and Paper Street. They have much in common. Both are in the Paso Robles wine region of California and are similar in size at around 40 hectares.

They are owned by the Dusi family, who planted both of them – albeit 80 years apart. A pioneering mindset and boundless energy have passed through the family’s generations resulting in one vineyard, Dusi, preserved and revered, and the other, Paper Street, in relative infancy.

Scroll down for Clare Tooley MW’s tasting notes and scores of 14 wines from the Dusi and Paper Street vineyards

Mike Dusi inherited the legacy vineyard but also the desire to put down roots and create a new perspective. He found ‘a brutal piece of land’ yet ‘perfect’ in his eyes at 490m to 670m elevation: steep, rocky and dry.

The site needed to be discovered, literally. It took an intensive period of landscaping the white limestone soil, cleared by hand.

A ‘paper street’ is one that does not appear on maps or even in reality. Aerial drone footage reveals the vineyard now, akin to an archaeological dig. It’s a special site, unearthed and beautifully outlined on steep, rocky hilltops, curvaceous and deeply impressive.

One suspects the original Dusi vineyard, created in 1945 by Sylvester Dusi and his three sons Guido, Dante and Benito, came into being similarly through rugged determination; to build a future when the world was still reeling from war.

Comparing the Dusi and Paper Street vineyards

The vineyards’ natural differences are what make them and their wines unique. Soil type and drainage, elevation, microclimate and the age of their vines interplay and connect to direct the structural components of the wines produced.

The Dusi vineyard fruit profile is all you could hope for from old vines, predominantly Zinfandel, that have dug deep: highly expressive aromatically and richly concentrated on the palate. The tannins are complex, layered, tightly woven but immensely supple.

Despite the high alcohols across all the wines, there is a sense of vibrancy. These old vines in this old vineyard are playing a serious and seriously elegant game but are very much alive.

The Paper Street wines, by contrast, really do appear a little wilder, a little less tamed; equally vibrant but less controlled. They appear more restless, as if their relatively youthful vines in such old soil have yet to be truly tethered to it.

There are aromatic notes in the wines beyond fruit that encompass flowering herbs and ancient metals. At their core, there is a savoury element that is immensely appetising, cooling their full-blown alcohols. Bold wines, as audacious as the vineyard project itself.

A celebration of place

Family, fruit, and famous winemakers are common threads between the two vineyards. Both sites produce grapes sourced, assiduously, by highly acclaimed winemakers in search of quality.

This provides us with an opportunity to explore multiple iterations and interpretations of the vineyard sites. They are, therefore, a source of real joy for the most curious of fine wine lovers.

Tasting a selection of the most recent releases from these vineyards, crafted by J Dusi, Turley Wine Cellars, Glunz Family, Barton Family and McPrice Myers, is both a celebration of place and a sensory journey of nuance.

Like a story read by different voices, the words are the same but the emphasis on certain aspects changes from reading to reading, or in this case, glass to glass.

Unlike past decades where all the grapes found homes in other cellars, Janell Dusi, Mike’s daughter and Sylvester’s great-granddaughter, now keeps 20% of the fruit herself.

Her winemaking, under the J Dusi label, pays homage to her family’s grape farming history while simultaneously exploring her individual talent. She calls this ‘tradition with a new perspective’. Her wines have an elegant power to them, vigorous and authoritative.

Individual interpretations

Glunz and Barton, family wineries equally rich in tales of determination and dedication, craft their own interpretations.

The story goes that three generations of the Glunz family went up to pick fruit at the newly established Paper Street vineyard to find three generations of Dusi family ahead of them already hard at work. Their wines make for sumptuous family suppers.

Joe Barton, named San Luis Obispo Winemaker of the Year 2020, seeks to express the character of Paso and the intricate nature of individual vineyards. His Paper Street Mourvèdre is a delicious interpretation of both the variety and its unique location. More impressively, it conveys their relationship in vinous form.

Larry Turley’s belief in both the Dusi and Paper Street vineyards stems from his and winemaker Tegan Passalacqua’s treasure hunt for California old-vine fruit. They journey to wherever there is interesting Zinfandel.

The Turley wines, and winemaker McPrice ‘Mac’ Myer’s bottles, are joyful celebrations of the grape: unashamedly bold, big and beautiful.

The story of such singular vineyards explores the complex nature of our connection to the earth. The sites predate man’s existence by millennia, but their potential has taken a human hand to reveal.

Deciding which takes priority is the quandary faced by the winemakers every vintage. Do they want their name on the final bottle or the name of the vineyard?

The answer surely dictates our vision and our appreciation of the wines, and we are the richer for the sensory exploration, and delight, involved.

Dusi & Paper Street vineyards: a taste of terroir in 14 wines

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Susy Atkins, Keith Kirkpatrick and Romain Bourger tasted 84 California reds, with one Outstanding and ten Highly Recommended.

Entry criteria: Producers and UK agents were invited to submit their Californian red wines with availability in the UK and/or US, with a retail price of up to £30/$30

See all wines tasted here

There may have been no fireworks, but our expert trio were encouraged by improved levels of quality in this competitive price bracket, if slightly disappointed by an overarching fruit-forward simplicity.

‘I was pleasantly surprised,’ said Susy Atkins. ‘It’s been a long time since I’ve tasted so many Californian wines in such a concentrated period of time and I do think the quality has gone up.

‘There’s a lot of good wine – even very good wine – for the price point, but I was disappointed that there were few really stellar wines, which we know California can deliver.’

Keith Kirkpatrick felt that Californian producers need to understand the UK market better before their wines are fully appreciated. ‘Our European palate is quite different from the North American palate,’ he explained. ‘Even for wines at entry level, not everybody is looking for sweet, forward fruit with lots of oak and alcohol. We want savouriness, elegance and balance as well.’

That finesse seemed most lacking in the Pinot Noirs which, nevertheless, were roundly enjoyed by all three judges. ‘I was looking for elegance and balance in particular, and was pleased that there weren’t too many overly sweet wines, though some tasted rather overcooked,’ noted Atkins. ‘But what was sadly lacking were the more complex notes – that lovely earthy, forest floor quality that Pinot can give.’

Unsurprisingly, the other consistently good-quality variety highlighted by all the judges was Cabernet Sauvignon. While Romain Bourger was impressed by the wines from specific AVAs, Kirkpatrick praised the entries that already had some age and therefore more aroma and flavour interest beyond primary fruit. ‘The younger 2018 wines were as I expected – powerful, ripe and intense – but at this stage of their life quite homogenous and often simplistic,’ he said.

In the Zinfandel flight, Bourger and Kirkpatrick preferred the lighter, more ‘old-school’ wines to the more concentrated, high-alcohol styles appreciated by Atkins. ‘But in general, whatever kind of Zinfandel you like there were some good, balanced, well-made examples,’ said Bourger.

Kirkpatrick was disappointed there were so few Syrahs: ‘California’s doing some great things with Syrah and I’d like to see more in the UK. So far we tend to see only those at a mid to high price, but I think it’s a grape that could work at a more affordable level too.’

Our expert trio found the ‘mixed bag’ flight of varieties such as Barbera, Carignan, Counoise, Grenache, Mourvèdre and Valdiguié hard to judge as there were no benchmarks. However, all agreed that while it was exciting to see the diversity of choice available, the wines would struggle in the UK in terms of price point, compared to more authentic, higher- quality counterparts from Europe.

As usual in Decanter panel tastings, prices were not revealed to the judges, nor which wines were available in either or both of the UK or US markets. But the consensus was that lovers of Californian wine on both sides of the pond had good choice and quality available to them. As Bourger concluded: ‘We’re lucky to have some excellent wines at the top end and some perhaps not so good wines at the cheap end, but if what we tasted here is an example of the intermediate range coming from California, there are some encouraging signs.’

Discussion copy by Tina Gellie. 

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Affordable California reds

Is there a middle-ground in California? Our three expert judges assessed how the state’s producers perform up to the £30/$30 level, aiming to find where the best value lies, writes Susy Atkins…

California dominates US wine production, delivering 81% of the country’s output. Pitted against whole nations, the Golden State emerges as the world’s fourth largest wine producer, yielding $43.6 billion in retail value and $1.36 billion in exports. According to California’s Wine Institute, there are 5,900 wine grape growers in 49 of its 58 counties, and across 139 AVAs (American Viticultural Areas), with some 110 varieties grown. This is big wine country.

So, one would expect a huge diversity of wine styles at different price points to pour out. However, that’s at odds with the generalised perceptions of the state’s portfolio. There’s a strong belief that California produces either wildly expensive, dazzlingly complex, ageworthy premium wines, or cheap, rather sweet and oaky mass-market brands, mainly from the more obvious grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay. This view holds that, in-between, there’s not enough finesse, nuance, or value.

This tasting puts those preconceptions to the test by looking at California reds under £30/$30 (we’ll look at whites next month). As well as the big three red varieties grown in California (see below), there are wines made from Syrah, Carignan, Grenache, Barbera and more – even such relatively obscurities as southern France’s Counoise and Valdiguié.

The big questions

In the past, producers here tended to put variety before provenance. But the modern-day move towards better site selection (often in cooler spots) has perhaps thrown that generalisation into question. Would generic California labels provide the best value in our tasting? Or which of the specific AVAs might triumph? While red blends are increasingly popular, California is known as a producer of varietal wines: which would take the lead? And would any single-vineyard wines be among our high scorers?

In 2018, Napa Valley had California’s highest average price per US ton of grapes, at $5,571, so one might not expect to find any Napa entries meeting our £30/$30 cut-off. Nor might we dare hope our best bargains would come from more marginal cooler climates where grapes can retain their natural acidity. Yet this balance between ripeness and freshness was exactly what we were looking for – particularly in the Pinot Noirs. Would we find it?

It stands to reason that California’s best-value reds should come from the state’s hot, dry, relatively fertile traditional farming heartlands, such as Lodi in the Central Valley, 160km east of San Francisco. Here, 40% of the state’s Zinfandel is grown, some from ancient, low-yielding vines. As with any full-bodied reds, you need balanced tannins, restrained sweet ripeness. Did they deliver?

Also a key factor is the judicious use of oak. American and French oak barrels are widely used in California, but still plenty of chips and staves too, especially for more commercial, entry-level wines. The most compelling question of all, perhaps, was whether smaller wineries or the often-derided big brands would rise best to this challenge of affordable Californian reds. The results were intriguing…

California’s Big Three: did you know?

source: California Wine Institute

Cabernet Sauvignon

The second most widely planted wine grape in the state (after Chardonnay) at 37,200ha. Average price per US ton: $1,553. Many of the best-known plantings are concentrated north and south of San Francisco in warm wine regions with significant temperature fluctuations between hot days and cooler nights. The first vineyard-designated Californian wine was Heitz, Martha’s Vineyard 1966 from what would become Oakville AVA in Napa Valley. It cost $7 a bottle (the winery’s regular bottling was $1.63).

Pinot Noir

The third most widely planted grape in the state at 18,300ha. Average price per ton: $1,688.Pinot didn’t become popular in California until after Prohibition ended as it was considered difficult to grow. By the 1970s and ’80s it was planted widely, generally in cooler spots, and sometimes for sparkling wine. By the 21st century, most quality Pinot was being grown in cool locations, often with fairly direct exposure to the Pacific ocean.

Zinfandel

Ranked fourth in California with plantings of 17,480ha. Average price per ton: £591. Zinfandel is concentrated in the north and central part of the state, especially in the Gold Counties of El Dorado and Amador in the Sierra Foothills. It was the most widely planted red variety in California until Cabernet Sauvignon overtook it in 1998.

A large proportion of the fruit is used for white/blush Zinfandel. The oldest documented grape vines in the state are the Zinfandel vines in the Grandpere Vineyard in Shenandoah Valley, Amador County, planted in 1869.

Affordable California reds panel tasting:

84 wines tasted

Entry criteria:

Producers and UK agents were invited to submit their Californian red wines with availability in the UK and/or US, with a retail price of up to £30/$30

Exceptional 0

Outstanding 1

Highly Recommended 10

Recommended 49

Commended 20

Fair 4

Poor 0

Faulty 0

Top scoring affordable California wines

See all wines tasted here

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Now until 31 December 2020, ASC Fine Wines is offering special discounted packages on a selection of 90+ point wines.

From 95 point Australian Viognier by Yalumba to award-winning Burgundy from Louis Jadot, Taylor’s LBV Port and ‘a bright, fresh splash of fruit’ with Robert Mondavi’s California Zinfandel, ASC Fine Wines has put together a selection of DWWA 2020 award-winning wines worth discovering this December.

Described as ‘China’s greatest fine wine importer’ by legendary wine critic and Decanter Hall of Fame 2020 winner Robert M. Parker, Jr., ASC has a sales network covering Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. With a constant focus on quality, ASC partners with the best possible wine brands to create an exceptional portfolio which now includes over 1,200 premium labels from more than 100 renowned wineries around the world. 

Associate Public Relations Director Matthew Gong comments, ‘We are thrilled that many of the wines that we distribute in China have won prestigious honours in Decanter World Wine Awards and Decanter Asia Wine Awards year after year. DWWA and DAWA are the signs of quality wines. We are proud that we bring them to China to enrich the life of Chinese wine lovers.

‘This month we have carefully selected from DWWA 2020 some of the most representative award-winning wines of their category, region and style to make packages for the China market. Undoubtedly, they will bring extra joy to the festive season.’

Scroll down to see which award-winning wines are on offer now at ASC Fine Wines. Alternatively, use the QR code below to start shopping now.

ASC Fine Wines x DWWA 2020

Bodega Norton, Privada Family Blend, Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina 2017

Silver, 92 points

Very stylish, attractive plum notes with some spices. Full-bodied and harmonious, it has depth and layers of complexity.

Bründlmayer, Rosé Brut, Niederösterreich, Austria NV

Silver, 91 points

Wonderful character, showing aromas of peach ice tea, wild strawberry and fresh red currants, with a creamy texture run through with crisp acidity.

Emilio Lustau, Emperatriz Eugenia, Oloroso, Sherry, Spain NV

Silver, 93 points

Beautiful, honeyed nose of molasses, then to a rich, textured palate of blanched almond, woodsmoke and plush bitter chocolate.

Louis Jadot, Pouilly-Fuissé, Burgundy, France 2018

Silver, 90 points

Rich vanilla, smoke and spicy oak aromatics with a luscious creamy, toasty palate and a long, velvety finish.

Louis Jadot, Les Petits Pierres, Mâcon, Burgundy, France 2018

Silver, 93 points

Energetic with lots of yellow apple and citrus zip, a vibrant floral freshness and a warming, spicy finish.

Robert Mondavi, Private Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, California, USA 2018

Silver, 92 points

Deep, poised, curranty red fruits, blackberries and subtle herbal notes. A ripe and generous palate with sweet spice on the finish.

Robert Mondavi, Private Selection Zinfandel, California, USA 2018

Silver, 90 points

A bright, fresh splash of fruit, with earthy berry and red flower aromas, and a little savoury warmth.

Taylor’s, Late Bottled Vintage, Port, Portugal 2015

Silver, 93 points

Elderberry, cherry and blackberry with finely-grained tannins and balanced sweetness. Ripe, brooding dark chocolate and mint aromas. Very appealing.

Yalumba, Samuel’s Collection Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon, Barossa, South Australia, Australia 2017

Silver, 91 points

Elegant, restrained aromas of smoky cedar and summery sweet fruit lead you to a palate of plum, chocolate and classy, silky oak.

Yalumba, The Virgilius Viognier, Eden Valley, South Australia, Australia 2017

Gold, 95 points

Delicate, with hints of white peach and bright citrus, then on to a focused palate of pineapple, vanilla, crème caramel and subtle silky spice.

Scan the QR code to shop now

About ASC Fine Wines

Website: www.asc-wines.com

Promotion period: Now until 31 December 2020

Promotion details: Save on DWWA 2020 wine packages up to 50% off

Online promo code: N/A (discount applied at checkout)

Wine Legend: Martinelli, Jackass Hill Zinfandel 1994, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA

Bottles produced 3,300

Composition 100% Zinfandel

Yield N/A

Alcohol 14.9%

Release price $16

Price today $130

A legend because…

The Martinelli family have been grape growers in Sonoma since the late 1880s. It remains their primary business to this day, with most of the fruit contracted to other wineries. The family stopped producing their own wines after 1949, but the winery reopened in the late 1980s under winemaker Daniel Moore. Helen Turley came on board in 1992 as consultant winemaker; she only left in 2010. Turley was a name to conjure with, admired by Robert Parker and other influential wine writers. Sonoma Zinfandel was typically a big, ripe wine with more heft than finesse. European palates often found it Porty and fatiguing, but Americans – the main buyers of these wines – adored it, their predilection boosted by wine critics’ rave reviews.

Looking back

Visitors flocked to the Martinelli facility on River Road in droves after the reviews of the 1990s. They must have been surprised to find it a large, rather scruffy former hop-barn. There was no Napa Valley bling here at that time, although today the tasting room has been expanded and tidied up. Indeed, this rustic atmosphere and the welcome from the family members were part of the appeal. This was also a period when bold, full-bodied, high-alcohol wines were in fashion. Helen Turley’s brother Larry founded his own winery in Napa Valley, where he produced numerous single-vineyard Zinfandels in exactly this style.

The vintage

The spring this year was cool, with some stormy weather. The summer was warm and mild, giving slow and consistent maturation, and the grapes retained good acidity. The autumn was cool and the harvest free of challenges. Problems at flowering did result in a below-average crop of Zinfandel, although the low yields didn’t impact quality.

The terroir

Jackass Hill is an estate vineyard on a southeast-facing slope that was planted in the 1890s by Giuseppe and Luisa Martinelli. This served as the mother block for massal selections for other Zinfandel vineyards planted by their descendants. Jackass Hill is believed to be the steepest unterraced vineyard in Sonoma county, with a 60°-65° slope, which it would be illegal to plant today for safety reasons. The site is dry-farmed and composed solely of bush vines.

The wine

The grapes were picked by hand and fermented with natural yeasts, and then aged for 10 months in 50% new French oak. The wine was bottled without fining or filtration.

The reaction

In 1996, Robert Parker was impressed: ‘The 1994 Jackass Hill Vineyard Zinfandel… rivals the extraordinary 1994 Hayne Vineyard Zinfandel produced by Turley Cellars… Martinelli’s Zinfandel is amazingly rich and unctuous, with huge flavour concentration, and a blockbuster finish that must be tasted to be believed.’

That same year, Wine Spectator was slightly less enthusiastic: ‘Dark, ripe and intense. Delivers an elegant core of complex, rich, plush plum, cherry, currant and berry flavours, with a tarry, spicy aftertaste. Delicious now and worthy of short-term cellaring.’

In 2018, Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW reviewed the wine on the Parker website: ‘Medium garnet with a touch of brick… scented of potpourri, Chinese five spice, citrus peel, liquorice and chargrill with a core of dried mulberries, preserved cherries and figs plus a touch of smoked meats. Full-bodied, super-concentrated and still sporting a firm frame of chewy tannins, it delivers incredible freshness and a very long, savoury finish.’

Anyone who likes ‘the blood and sun of California’, as a European friend characterised his first taste of Zinfandel, should give recognition to the early Italian pioneers who settled the coasts of central and northern California.

The regions looked like northern Italy. They had Italy’s Mediterranean climate. And those Italian farmers brought with them more than 2,000 years of grape-growing and winemaking experience.

They didn’t have degrees in viticulture or oenology. They farmed by the seat of their pants. But they were savvy as hell.

The pioneers are long gone, though you can still taste that savvy in wines from their vineyards, many planted between 100-140 years ago. These vineyards are mostly Zinfandel, a variety that came to California just a few years before the Italian settlers, and which the Italians favoured almost immediately upon their arrival.

They planted a few other varieties along with the Zin: Carignan, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, Grenache, Mataro (their name for Mourvèdre) and even a few vines of white Chasselas, among others, to give diversity. These field blends were yielding wine grapes when Monet and Van Gogh were painting their masterpieces.

The head-trained vines in those vineyards are ancient, thick and gnarled now. They don’t yield much fruit, but they clutch the earth in a strong embrace and impart its essence, and the richness of their age, to their grapes.

Dismissed for years as not worth much – even torn out to be replaced by the new darlings of Bordeaux varieties, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir – the true nobility of these ancient vines is now being recognised. Historic Vineyard Society is a non-profit organisation devoted to their preservation.

Newer plantings of Zinfandel can certainly produce delicious, worthy wines. The variety goes easy on the tannins, but finds backbone in its acid profile and spiciness on the palate.

One of its glories is its ability to age, as was proven at a recent gathering of friends when a double magnum of 1987 Joseph Swan Vineyards’ old-vine Zinfandel had the crowd cheering. ‘I can smell that wine in here,’ yelled a cook from the kitchen.

It was an obscure and ancient Croatian variety called Crljenak Kaštelanski that emigrated to America in the early 19^th century and became California’s signature variety, Zinfandel. Unlike the first waves of human immigrants to the United States, who have now all passed on, some of those first- generation vines are still with us, providing glorious drinking.

Dry Creek Valley: E&J Gallo

If any winemaking company knows a lot about Zinfandel, it’s the world’s largest, E&J Gallo. Founded in 1933, Julio Gallo made the wine and his brother Ernest sold it. They labelled the good stuff ‘Hearty Burgundy’, but it was less hearty than yummy and had absolutely nothing to do with Burgundy.

Times have changed. Gallo has become the 800-pound gorilla of the wine world. The company has many wineries, labels and price points, and makes some very sophisticated, high-quality wines. One of the latter is Gallo’s Signature Series Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, and the winemaker’s signature on the label is that of Gina Gallo, Julio’s granddaughter. She’s dedicated to good wine, as is her husband, Jean-Charles Boisset.

‘Julio loved Zinfandel,’ says Gina. It’s a penchant among the Italian families who re-established winemaking after Prohibition, and her Signature Series showcases why. The fruit – 93% Zinfandel and 7% Petite Sirah – comes from some of the oldest (more than 130 years) and best vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley, and a portion of the Zin comes from the outstanding Monte Rosso vineyard in the Sonoma Valley appellation.

Russian River Valley: Carlisle

‘I was a software developer,’ says Carlisle’s Mike Officer. ‘This (he gestures at the buildings, silvery steel tanks and rolling hill with their marching rows of vines) is my second career.’ Recently, he and his wife Kendall made 1,000 cases of Papera Ranch Zinfandel 2017, but it wasn’t easy.

‘We had severe heat on 1 and 2 September [about 45°C] and we lost a lot of fruit because many of the pedicels that connect the grape berries to the clusters shrank and died, cutting off the fruit’s water supply.’ They had to haul sorting tables to the vineyards, then sort again in the winery to separate the unripe, high-acid raisins from the good fruit. It was worth it. ‘The 2017 is very high quality,’ he says.

The vineyard is about 96% Zinfandel and 4% Carignan, and was planted in 1934 by Italian immigrant Celestino Papera a few kilometres west of Santa Rosa. The Papera vineyard may be 86 years old, but Officer says he’s ‘never seen another old-vine vineyard as healthy and in such good shape’. He should know: he’s the president of the aforementioned Historic Vineyard Society.

Dry Creek Valley: Nalle Winery

Back in the mid-1980s, when many Zinfandel producers were making big, muscular trophy wines, Doug Nalle and his wife Lee started their winery with the intention of making elegant, lean and complex Zins in the European style of noble red wines. ‘We were following tradition,’ says Doug, ‘using French oak and making wines under 14% alcohol. We wanted the wine to be food-friendly.’

They had good fruit to work with. Their property included 0.6ha of old Zin vines planted in 1927 by Lee’s great-grandparents, Fred and Ruby Henderlong. Today that fruit is augmented with Zinfandel from the Bernier-Sibary vineyard, 8km north. Both sites are dry-farmed and the vines head-trained, with some Petite Sirah and Carignan in the field blends. Doug, and now his son Andrew and daughter-in-law April, the current winemakers and proprietors, achieved this elegant style by picking the fruit at its initial burst of ripeness.

‘We sort at the picking bins and again when we get the fruit into the winery, looking to discard any overripe berries,’ says Andrew. April adds: ‘Younger folks in the tasting room are looking for low-alcohol wines that are nicely balanced.’ It’s a trend other Zinfandel producers have noticed, too.

Sonoma Valley: Ridge

Pagani Ranch sits in the middle of a stretch of the Sonoma Valley so picturesque that cars are often parked along the highway, their occupants taking photos of the ranch’s Victorian farmhouse and barns, century-old vines and the mountains to the east.

Felice Pagani bought the property in the late 1880s and put in 12ha of the field blend – mostly Zinfandel – from 1896 to 1922. Another 2.4ha were planted to Zin and Petite Sirah in 2013. Pagani’s descendants still manage the vineyard. Several wineries purchase its fruit, but half of the harvest goes to winemaker John Olney at Ridge. Pagani Ranch has been a part of Ridge’s array of Zins since 1991.

The site is gravelly clay loam in a cool part of the valley that allows for slow ripening and a delayed harvest. ‘In 2017,’ says Olney, ‘we finished picking on 7 October.’ The next night, fire blazed through Kenwood, but the fruit had been safely trucked away. ‘Pagani Ranch shows character,’ says Olney, referring to a terroir best described as giving honest, focused red- and black-fruit flavours.

Dry Creek Valley: Seghesio Family Vineyards

The Seghesio winery and tasting room in Healdsburg, Sonoma County is a veritable temple of Zinfandel, with a dozen different labels of either single-vineyard wines or blends sourced from vineyards scattered around the county. The flagship wine is the Cortina Zinfandel, made from vines planted in 1972 by fourth-generation Ted Seghesio and his father Ed. The Cortina soils flank the streambed that gives Dry Creek Valley its name.

Winemaker Andy Robinson, who works with vineyard manager Ned Neumiller, calls the Cortina 2016 ‘perfection’. By that, he means it is a precise balance of acid, tamed tannins and bright red fruits that culminate in a long finish. ‘Zinfandel is best when there are three layers,’ says Robinson, referring to a grape cluster. ‘There are some underripe berries, most are perfectly ripe and a few are overripe.’ This is fairly typical of Zinfandel, especially in Dry Creek, where nights are chilly and often foggy, while days are warm or hot. And why do they focus on 100% Zinfandel? Didn’t pioneers like the Seghesios, who founded the winery in 1895, make field blends?

‘They did, but we intentionally kept more recent plantings to pure Zin because of the quality of our fruit,’ Robinson says. ‘There’s a certain elegance that doesn’t need any other varieties in the blend.’

Lodi: Klinker Brick Winery

Klinker Brick’s Old Ghost flagship bottling isn’t tied to any particular vineyard in the Mokelumne sub-appellation of the Lodi AVA, but is made from fruit selected as the highest quality from several vineyards. In fact, each vintage of Old Ghost may be from different vineyards. ‘It could be a different set of vineyards next year,’ says Steven Felten, who owns the winery with his wife Lori. ‘But we’re always looking for elegance and the best-quality fruit.’

The winery is named for the old, burnt-surfaced bricks that ring with a ‘klink’ when struck, characteristic of brick buildings in the area. What the chosen vineyards have in common is age – from 40 to more than 100 years old – and restricted yields of about 30hl/ha, lower than the average 50-60hl/ha typical of the Lodi AVA.

The result, says Felten, is ‘more like a fine wine’: ‘Elegant and smooth, not peppery or spicy. It tastes more like a Cabernet Sauvignon.’ The quality of Lodi’s old-vine Zinfandels made a leap forward at the end of the 1980s, when drip irrigation replaced flooding ditches between rows. Less water meant smaller berries, greater skin-to-juice ratio, and better wines. The Old Ghost is evidence of that.

Sonoma County: DeLoach Vineyards

While the winery is in the Russian River Valley AVA, the fruit used to make DeLoach’s Forgotten Vines bottling comes from vineyards in several Sonoma County appellations. Russian River Valley supplies 75% of the grapes in the blend, 10% is from the Monte Rosso vineyard in Sonoma Valley, 10% from Fountaingrove in Santa Rosa, and 5% from Knight’s Valley in far eastern Sonoma County.

Winemaker Brian Maloney, who came up with the name for the bottling, says the vines that contribute to Forgotten Vines have an average age of more than 100 years old. Jean-Charles Boisset, the owner of DeLoach and husband of Gina Gallo (see p70), says these old vines impart a notion of history. ‘There’s spirituality in the wine, and a deep terroir that gives you a sense of the time these vines have been alive.’ The components of Forgotten Vines are also sold as single-vineyard old-vine field blends by DeLoach. These vineyards include Fanucchi, Riebli, Rue and Saitone in Russian River Valley.

Maloney wants to emphasise the fresh fruit character in these grapes, so he lightly crushes them and gives them a four- to seven-day cold soak. He then ferments and presses them when the wine is dry. He uses native yeasts and finishes any laggard fermenters with commercial yeast if needed.

Sonoma Valley: Bucklin Old Hill Ranch

The 4.9ha of ancient vines at Will Bucklin’s Old Hill Ranch in Glen Ellen, Sonoma County, were planted in the 1880s, after phylloxera wiped out the original vines planted in 1852. At 140 years old, some of them cling to life on spindly trunks, while others are thick and massive. All of them carry history on their gnarled shoulders right into the glass, where you can taste it.

William McPherson Hill came west in 1849, but he didn’t toil for gold. Instead, he made his money selling food and equipment to the miners. With peaches sold at $2 each, he soon had enough money to buy extensive land in Sonoma Valley, and today’s ancient-vine field blend is a remnant of his land holding.

The Hill ranch was sold to Will’s grandfather Otto, an early environmentalist whose farming method was ‘benign neglect’. When deer would nibble the vines and fruit, Will says his grandfather’s response was: ‘A deer’s gotta eat, too.’ Thankfully, the vineyard survived. Ampelographers have identified between 28-35 different varieties mixed in with the 65% Zinfandel. ‘We even have an unknown vine,’ says Will. ‘It doesn’t show up in any other vineyard and no one has ever identified it.’ It adds a note of mystery to wine handed down to us from the century before last.

Dry Creek Valley: Dry Creek Vineyard

At a tasting set up by proprietor Kim Stare Wallace and winemaker Tim Bell, the surprises just kept coming. It seemed that this well-established Zinfandel winery’s Heritage Vine Zinfandel 2017 would be the hands-down star of the show, as the fruit comes from budwood taken from pre-Prohibition vines found in old field blends and grafted onto new, phylloxera-resistant rootstock. It is a fine and fruity Zin, and they made a lot of it in 2017: 15,000 cases.

That year, horrendous fires burned through large swathes of Sonoma County, but not Dry Creek Valley; luckily, the wine was safely in tanks as the fire blazed and the county was blanketed in smoke, so there’s no smoke taint in the wines.

But more impressive still was the Old Vine Zinfandel 2016, made with fruit from several vineyards in the valley with an average age of more than 95 years. Steady, moderate weather during ripening produced a perfect vintage. The biggest surprise came when the Four Clones vineyard’s 2017 blend of Zin, Petite Sirah and Alicante Bouschet was poured. This 1.78ha vineyard flanks the winery. It was planted in 2009, and the rootstocks were grafted to clones from four Dry Creek Valley vineyards. The wine shimmers with bramble fruits, allspice and leather.

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 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 altitude, with 40° slopes and 6.5ha planted to 95% Zin, plus some Carignan and Grenache.

The soil is calcareous shale and seabed mudstone, with a strongly alkaline pH of 8.5-8.9 in some spots. ‘People said you can’t grow grapes in soil that alkaline,’ laughs Turley. Grow the vines did, counterintuitively yielding acidic wines of pH 3.3 with a deliciousness that prompted one taster to remark: ‘If you don’t like this wine, you don’t like wine.’

Next-gen Zin

While ancient field blends continue to enchant, producers report that among younger California Zinfandel wine lovers, the trend is toward lighter, lower-alcohol, fruit-forward wines – especially those showing the perfume of carbonic maceration. Some winemakers are taking advantage of this trend by making small-batch fermentations that contain whole berries and some whole clusters. Erik Miller at Kokomo and Greg La Follette at Alquimista are two who have climbed aboard this bandwagon.

California Zinfandel producers: Ones to watch

Alexander Valley: Zialena

Zialena’s roots go back to the early 1900s, when Italian immigrant Giuseppi Mazzoni joined the Italian Swiss Colony

and became a grape farmer and winemaker. His great-grandchildren, Mark and Lisa, now carry on the legacy at their 49ha estate. Mazzoni fruit is prime stuff for the family’s own-label Zialena, as well as for other local wineries.

Alexander Valley: Scherrer

Fred Scherrer worked for Pinot Noir pioneer Tom Dehlinger in Sebastopol for several years before he made his first vintage in 1991. He used fruit from his family’s old-vine Zinfandel, which was planted in 1912 and grown on benchland in the beautiful Alexander Valley. His style is meticulous, with a focus on balancing ‘the angles’ (tannin, acid and non-fruit elements) and ‘the rounds’ (glycerol and fruity elements). The Zinfandels are big and bold, and they dance with rich fruit flavours.

Dry Creek Valley: Kokomo

Why the name? Because owner Erik Miller is from Kokomo, Indiana. He has partnered with lifelong Dry Creek

grape-grower Randy Peters to source fruit from three prestigious Zinfandel vineyards, making for a wine with intriguing facets of flavour. All of Kokomo’s varietal wines have earned rave reviews from critics since the winery

started out in 2004.

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, Syrah 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.

Napa Valley: Mike & Molly Hendry

Napa Valley’s climate gets progressively cooler going south. At the far southern end is the Coombsville sub-appellation, influenced by the San Pablo bay’s cold waters. That’s where 10ha of a Zinfandel-based field blend were planted in 1905 (now known as RW Moore Vineyard). Today, Mike and Molly Hendry turn those grapes into a sturdy wine that changes its flavour profile depending on the vintage, but is always fresh and fruity.

Lodi: Alquimista Cellars

Long-time Pinot Noir superstar Greg La Follette and his business partner Patrick Dillon make wine from Jessie’s Grove Vineyard, planted in 1888 to Zinfandel, Carignan, Flame Tokay, Black Prince, Mission and Malvasia Bianca. After the Flame Tokay’s whole clusters are fermented, La Follette goes through the must and crushes them by hand. The wines are like the best Beaujolais you’ve ever had.

Lodi: Mccay Cellars

Owner and winemaker Mike McCay launched his label in 2007. He is widely respected for his terroir-driven single-vineyard bottlings, including his JupiternVineyard Zinfandel. The vineyard is 6ha, planted in the 1930s to 100% Zinfandel. Its wine crackles with acid bones and fruit flesh. McCay’s approach is ‘hands on in the vineyard, hands off in the winery’. He ferments using only native yeasts to enhance the nuances of terroir.

Lodi: St Amant

Step back in time by sampling the Mohr-Fry Ranch Old Vine Zinfandel produced by winemaker Stuart Spencer at St Amant in the heart of the Lodi AVA. These vineyards were planted between 1901 and 1945 on their own roots in sandy Sacramento delta soil, which faces less risk of phylloxera. Old Zin clones benefit from cool nights and warm days, and are picked ripe to create a rough-and-ready wine – like great-grandad used to drink.

Top California Zinfandel producers: Wines to try

Tricky to grow and produced in a range of styles, it can be hard to pin down the character of great Californian Zinfandel. Stephen Brook suggests starting your search in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley, and picks out his favourite wines.

Driving up to the Nalle Winery in Dry Creek Valley, I find Doug Nalle standing outside surrounded by bins of freshly picked Zinfandel. I peer into one and remark on how healthy the grapes look.

There had been a heat spike a few days earlier and Zin grapes, which had been exposed to temperatures of up to 45˚C, are susceptible to shrivelling or raisining.

‘You’re looking at the bin that has been sorted. Here’s the bin of raisined grapes – this is fruit I don’t want in my vats. And over there is the bin with the bunch rot. That’s going to be thrown out. The raisined grapes I’ll ferment separately and we’ll probably make a late-harvest wine from it. May as well.’

When you’re making wine from Zinfandel, pragmatism has to be the order of the day.It’s a tricky grape at the best of times, being prone to uneven ripening, so winemakers may end up with unripe and overripe berries in their fermenters. Rigorous sorting helps reduce this unevenness, but it does make decisions on when to pick extremely difficult.

‘Flowering is always uneven and so is the maturation,’ says Nalle, ‘so you get grapes at various stages of maturation in the same cluster.’

It is a mantra in California that grapes need to be optimally, or phenolically, ripe to be considered ready for harvest. By the time the bunches reach that ideal position, sugar levels are likely to be very high, and the result will be wines with ferocious alcohol. This, surely, is the reason why Zinfandel is controversial.

At the 2017 Decanter World Wine Awards, a judge who happens to be one of America’s top sommeliers threw up his hands when I announced that the next tasting flight would be Zinfandel. ‘Count me out,’ he said. ‘I just hate Zinfandel, so my low scores will scupper any wine’s chances.’

Expect the unexpected

Strong words, but not uncommon. A visit to Dry Creek Valley, generally accepted to be the source of California’s finest Zinfandels, provided the key. There can be few wines made in so many styles.

I encountered wines imbued with red fruits, others with black fruits; wines with low acidity, others with higher; wines at moderate alcohol levels (around 14%) and many that were 15.5% and above.

With Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine enthusiast will have a good idea of what to expect when he or she opens a bottle. That is not the case with Zinfandel, unless you are already familiar with the style of a particular producer.

And it has to be conceded that there is a lot of bad Zinfandel around: wines that are jammy and/or hot, wines with a dollop of residual sugar, wines with detectable greenness. It’s not easy to grow and it’s not easy to make, either, and many wines flounder between harvest and bottling.

Ed Sbragia, formerly chief winemaker at Beringer, observes: ‘Pinot Noir is hard to grow but easy to ferment, but with Zin you never know what will happen.’

Most winemakers accept that high alcohol – say, 15% or more – is just part of Zinfandel’s typicity, though others, like Nalle, consciously strive to make wines about a degree lower.

Antoine Favero, winemaker at Mazzocco, explains: ‘At harvest I’m looking for flavours, not just sugars. You have to accept that with Zin you’re likely to end up with some shrivelled fruit, and uneven ripening can be a problem, though experience helps you judge how to deal with that. A few unripe berries won’t hurt: they can contribute a little acidity. It’s possible to add water at fermentation to reduce alcohol, but you risk losing some fruit. So you need to be very careful.’

Virginia Marie Lambrix at Truett-Hurst is typical of many when she asserts: ‘With Zin I like big, bold flavours, so I’m not too worried about high alcohol.’ Veteran grower and winemaker Dan Teldeschi of the eponymous family winery agrees: ‘Zin can handle high alcohol because of its body and concentration.’ Personally, high alcohol doesn’t bother me when it comes to Zinfandel – unless, as so often happens, I can taste it.’

Old vines

Dry Creek Valley, northwest of Healdsburg, is California’s sweet spot for Zinfandel, both because its microclimates suit the variety and because there are quite a few surviving old vineyards. Napa too had some excellent Zinfandel sites that are gradually being replanted or grafted over to the more soughtafter Cabernet Sauvignon. Russian River Valley has some old Zinfandel vineyards, but because it’s a cooler area than Dry Creek Valley, the fruit often doesn’t ripen until sugars have gone through the roof.

Further north, Mendocino has a few surviving old Zinfandel sites, and some of the most ancient are to the east in the Sierra Foothills, but here the wines can show a distinct rusticity, although there are some distinguished exceptions

Centenarian vines are not that unusual in Dry Creek, although they too are beginning to disappear as plummeting yields persuade growers to replace them with younger, trellised vines. Nonetheless, a drive up the valley will bring into view rows of splendidly gnarled old bush vines. Not that all of them are Zinfandel. Most of those vineyards are field blends, with Zin representing 70 to 90% of the plantings, the remainder being varieties such as Carignan, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, and even white grapes such as Palomino.

The minor varieties were either planted by accident or deliberately as an insurance policy, as the grapes, when harvested in one swoop, would contain bunches at various stages of maturity, the overripe balancing the underripe. Zin was chosen by the migrant growers because of its generous yields, whereas today’s winemakers use green-harvesting and other techniques to reduce yields so as to give more concentrated and complex wines.

Winemakers such as Hugh Chappelle at Quivira feel that Petite Sirah plays a useful role. ‘It adds colour, tannin and structure to the wine, and as its alcohols tend to be between 13% and 14%, it helps to reduce the overall alcohol in a Zin-based wine,’ he says.

The same would be true of Carignan, which also adds acidity, and for Unti Vineyards a dash of Barbera performs the same role.

Best sites

The valley is by no means uniform. The more northerly stretches can be considerably warmer than the southern ones, and by the time the valley reaches the outskirts of Healdsburg the climate is generally too cool to be optimal for Zinfandel. The best sites are on the eastern benchlands and the western slopes and hills.

Nalle explains: ‘These sites are well drained, and that’s essential for Zin. If it’s growing on poorly drained, valley floor areas, the berries will swell. Zin needs warmth but doesn’t like excessive heat. Sometimes the western side can give harder or edgier wines. Overall I find the eastern vineyards more consistent, especially around Canyon Road.’

Kim Stare Wallace, whose father David Stare founded Dry Creek Vineyard in 1972, broadly concurs: ‘The western side has more iron in the soil, which is reddish and rocky, and this is ideal for Zin. The eastern side has more sedimentary soils that give softer wines with more elegance.’ Shelly Rafanelli, winemaker at the eponymous estate that owns vineyards on both sides of the valley, finds the western side better in torrid years, as it can resist shrivelling more consistently.

Diurnal range is an important factor too. Chappelle and Sbragia both note that nighttime temperatures can be around 12˚C, even in summer. ‘But that,’ Chapelle points out, ‘is the secret of Zin’s healthy natural acidities – if you don’t pick too late.’ Elevation also makes a difference and helps to explain the wide flavour spectrum of Dry Creek Zinfandel.

As Favero points out: ‘Vineyards at higher, cooler elevations with marine influence give more red-fruited wines and spice, while valley floor sites give jammier flavours. But it also depends on when you pick, as more raisined fruit will also give darker flavours.’ Some higher sites on the western side are extremely close to the fashionable high-elevation vineyards of the Sonoma Coast, and these ripen later and have a different structure.

Versatile variety

David Amadia, president of Ridge Vineyards, says it’s not surprising that Zinfandel can be made in so many styles, even within one valley, as it’s notoriously diverse. ‘Historically, Zin was used to produce not only dry reds, but rosés and Port-style wines,’ he explains. You can also add blush wines to that list. This makes it impossible to pin down the variety’s typicity, as there are so many variables.

Another factor that has nothing to do with terroir or vine age is consumer taste. There’s still a strong following for ‘killer Zins’, wines that can exceed 16%. A few days visiting top producers persuaded me that those coarse, palate-numbing styles were on the way out; but a generic tasting of wines from estates I had no time to visit showed that those styles still cling on. Some winemakers like them too.

Teldeschi’s wines have a kind of rugged grandeur, but no one would call them elegant. But some of these burly monsters soon fall apart, as they are fundamentally unbalanced. Chappelle is convinced that there’s a renaissance of Zin made in a fresher style, the approach championed for decades by Nalle and today by Jessica Boone of Passalacqua.

Richer, weightier styles that avoid excesses, especially of alcohol, can be very enjoyable, are generally balanced and can age well. Ridge’s splendid Lytton Springs wines fall into this category, as do some of Mazzocco’s single-vineyard bottlings. They’re indisputably big wines, but are balanced. Zinfandels made by the likes of Seghesio, Nalle and Ridge can and will age. Amadia poured a Lytton Springs 1997 that was still going strong, but admitted that such longevity couldn’t be counted on.

Paul Draper, former chief winemaker of Ridge, once told me that Zin can close down after seven years; it may bounce back and continue to evolve, but then again it may not. Zin enthusiasts love the variety for its fruit, and for its lifted and varied aromas. Obscure that fruit with too much oak or alcohol, or with overripeness, and that appeal soon vanishes.

Unbalanced wines still exist, but most don’t travel beyond Sonoma’s borders. In an American context Zinfandel is reasonably priced, with good examples between $30 and $60 (£22-£44), the latter being the price of a bargain-basement Cabernet.

Despite the emergence of Pinot Noir as a credible West Coast grape variety, Sonoma’s Dry Creek Zinfandel has its place in the roster of Californian reds that deserve to be taken far more seriously.

Brook’s pick of Dry Creek Valley Zinfandels:

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California winemakers and grape growers crushed just over four million tonnes of grapes in the 2017 harvest, with increases for Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir and declines for Chardonnay and Zinfandel, show new figures.

California’s most common wine grape varieties based on 2017 crush figures:

• Chardonnay
• Cabernet Sauvignon
• Zinfandel
• Pinot Noir
• Merlot
• Pinot Gris
• Sauvignon Blanc
• Syrah
• Petite Syrah
• Riesling

Based on 2017 grape crush data, published by California’s department of food and agriculture and analysed by Ciatti Company in February 2018.

What we know from the latest California 2017 harvest figures

California harvested around four million tonnes of grapes in 2017, with the red wine harvest down by 1.6% versus 2016 and the white wine harvest up by 0.7% against the previous year, according to preliminary figures released by wine broker Ciatti and based on California Department of Food & Agriculture figures.

Reds came in at just over 2.24 million tonnes and white grapes at around 1.76 million.

Wildfires impact 

Devastating wildfires claimed more than 40 lives across North California in October 2017, despite 10,000 firefighters doing their best to contain blazes.

Wine was understandably not the main concern with lives and homes at risk, but there was nevertheless discussion within the wine sector around how fires might affect the 2017 vintage.

Some wineries sustained damage – Signorello, for example, being one of the worst hit – although a Sonoma State University survey of North California wineries found that 950 our of 1,025 wineries contacted had no structural damage.

While it is too early to properly assess quality impact, the latest 2017 grape crush report underlines the view that fires had a minimal overall impact on harvest quantity – even though some producers in high risk areas were evacuated from their estates for several days.

‘The fire was awful,’ said Glenn Proctor, global wine and grape broker with Ciatti, ‘but from an industry point of view we feel it did not have an effect on production numbers.

‘Luckily most of the crop was harvested by the time the fires occurred in the second week of October. We feel the severe heat we had in early September had the biggest effect on production,’ he told Decanter.com.

Cabernet Sauvignon is king

Cabernet Sauvignon had a record harvest in California in 2017, up 6% on 2016, said Ciatti.

Californian growers crushed almost 600,000 tonnes of the world’s most planted grape variety last year with premium coastal regions seeing the biggest increase.

Cabernet harvests ‘will only continue to grow’, said Ciatti.

In contrast, Chardonnay saw 2017 harvest quantity dented by heat spikes, particularly in Lodi, where the total crush fell by 18%.

Zinfandel saw one of its smallest harvests in recent years, down by nearly 13% to just over 364,000 tonnes.

Other growers included Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris, which rose by 3.3% and 3.5% in 2017.

See also: Plan to rebuild Signorello after California wildfires

California Zinfandel has re-surfaced from the murky depths with a fresher face and greater poise. Time to look again at wines made with this heritage grape, says Carson Demmond.

• Scroll down to find Zinfandel wine recommendations

California Zinfandel lost almost an entire generation of drinkers who learned to associate it with excessive alcohol levels, glossy sweetness, and prune-like flavours.

But those who came of age before the new millennium remember a different Zin – one that represented the perfect gateway wine.

Its forward profile, effusive fruit, and peppery spice made it easy to understand and even easier to drink, and its price point made it a more accessible alternative to Cabernet Sauvignon.

That earlier style seems much more fitting for wine made from some of the country’s oldest heritage vines.

And a few dynamic producers have now taken up its case, staging a comeback for the much-maligned grape.

More California wine content

• Where to eat and drink in Sonoma

• Six new California wine styles

Most winemakers trace the shift towards the ever-bigger styles of Zinfandel to the 1997 vintage.

‘There was an abundant crop, and that fruit was coming in one and two weeks late with very high levels of sugar,’ said Eric Baugher, winemaker for Ridge Vineyards’ Monte Bello estate.

‘When those wines made their way into the world, they got huge ratings for that opulence.’

Ridge is one of a handful of wineries that never erred from the restrained style, which has made it one of California’s greatest champions of terroir expression.

‘Once you get above 15 percent alcohol, you completely erase your terroir,’ said Baugher. ‘You might make a good Zin, but it will taste the same as everyone else’s.’

Morgan Twain-Peterson, the 35-year-old vintner-owner of Bedrock Wine Co., similarly advocates for site-expressiveness through earlier pick times.

Although his project’s primary focus has been heirloom field blends, he became convinced of Zinfandel’s potential for a more digeste style in 2009, when he found Monte Rosso –a site on the Sonoma side of Mount Veeder planted almost entirely to the variety.

‘It’s an amazing old vineyard planted in the 1880s on red volcanic soil that produces this high acid, perfumed, mountain fruit,’ he said. ‘I immediately knew it was going to make a wine that I liked.’

At between 14 and 14.5 percent alcohol, Twain-Peterson’s Zins are by no means shy, but they completely reject the technique of picking at 28 Brix or more and watering back that had been de rigueur in the state for much of the last two decades.

‘I get notes from people who say these taste like the bottles they used to drink in the ‘80s and ‘90s when they first started loving wine. What can be more rewarding than that?’

It was largely because of his love for Zinfandel that Chris Brockway first moved to California to be a winemaker.

‘I was a little shocked when I got here, because the wines were so dark and porty,’ he said. ‘It was completely contradictory to what I remembered.’

The inclination to let Zinfandel hang longer, Brockway admits, is due to the variety’s notoriously uneven ripening.

But, he found two vineyards that lend themselves to a brighter expression – Arrowhead Mountain in Sonoma Valley and Buck Hill near Santa Rosa, a stone’s throw from Chalk Hill.

‘I pick two to three weeks earlier than would be standard,’ he said. ‘But, these sites taste good picked early, whereas fruit from Lodi might come across as green.’

His Vine Starr Zinfandel, under the Broc Cellars label, is lithe and fresh, its strawberry and black tea aromas harkening back to the Zins of a bygone era, with a crunchy, whole-cluster-like quality, despite the grapes being completely destemmed.

Seeing the favorable market response for wines such as Broc Cellars’ and Bedrock’s has led other winemakers to pick earlier than they have in previous vintages.

‘I guess we took the fear element away from it,’ said Twain-Peterson. ‘Acidity was considered a pejorative when it came to Zinfandel, and that’s not the case anymore.’

Progressive restaurants in San Francisco are slowly stocking Zinfandel again, relieved to have found styles that won’t overwhelm their food.

And young winemakers have started seeking out old Zinfandel vines.

‘It started with Carignan and Mourvèdre, but more and more, they’re dabbling in Zin,’ said Twain-Peterson.

‘In 10 years’ time, we’re going to see even more compelling wines being produced.’

Zinfandel wines to seek out

Prices sourced via Wine-Searcher

1. Broc Cellars, ‘Vine Starr’ Zinfandel 2014 from Sonoma County

The 2015 vintage is available now in the U.S. but won’t reach the UK for another few weeks.

A racy style of Zinfandel blended from two vineyards in Sonoma County from vintner Chris Brockway.

Buy it here:

UK

£27.95 Drinkmonger (Scotland)

US - In bond

$31.99 Millesima (New York) $28 Solano Cellars (California) $28 Vinopolis Wine Shop (Oregon)

2. Dashe Cellars, ‘Les Enfants Terribles’ Zinfandel 2014, McFadden Farm, Potter Valley

An aromatic and fruit-forward Zinfandel, made in a Beaujolais-style, from Michael and Anne Dashe.

Buy it here:

US - In bond

$25.99 Wine.com (California) $27.55 Cellar D’Or (New York, Finger Lakes) 

3. Bedrock Wine Co, ‘Old Vines’ Zinfandel 2014, Sonoma Valley

A spice-laced blend of Zinfandels from 80-plus-year-old vines with a balance of Carignan, Mourvèdre, Grenache, and intermixed whites.

Buy it here:

US - In bond

$24.98 Wine House (California) $25.97 Astor Wines (New York) $24 Europa Wine Merchant (Oregon)

4. Precedent, ‘Evangelho Vineyard’ Zinfandel 2013, Contra Costa County

A bright, fine-grained expression from own-rooted vines on sandy soil.

Buy it here: 

US - In bond

$27.99 Wine.com (California)* $29.99 Chambers St Wines (New York)** 

*2015 vintage **2014 vintage

5. Fog Monster, ‘Bedrock Red’ 2013, Sonoma County

A juicy, mostly whole-cluster Zinfandel-based blend from Morgan Twain-Peterson’s Bedrock vineyard, as interpreted by Andrea and Chris Mullineaux.

Contact winery for availability

More Zinfandel, including UK availability:

Zinfandel to change your mind

Struggle to find a Zinfandel you enjoy? Matt Stamp MS explains his love of the variety...

The California red wine quiz – test your knowledge

Four new trends in California winemaking

The latest in California...

Photos: California wine harvest gallery 2016

See our pick of the best photos of the 2016 wine harvest in California...

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August has already witnessed a slew of significant vineyard purchases in California wine country.

California winery sales

Yesterday, Williams Selyem announced the acquisition of the 33-acre Saitone Vineyard in Sonoma County, an historic site first planted in 1895 that is home to some of the state’s oldest vines, including 12 acres of 121-year-old Zinfandel, and the source of vineyard-designate bottlings from producers including Bedrock and Carlisle.

On the same day, Sea Smoke purchased Rita’s Crown Vineyard in Santa Barbara’s Sta. Rita Hills AVA: some 61 acres of high-density Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, planted in 2007 and source of single-vineyard bottlings from the producers including Babcock and Sandhi.

Less than a week earlier, news broke that Kosta Browne had acquired Cerise Vineyards in Anderson Valley: a 59 acre site which includes the Demuth and Knez vineyards, planted principally with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and source of bottlings from wineries including Littorai, Saintsbury and Anthill Farms.

August’s news follows on the heels of another significant transaction in July: Paul Hobbs Winery’s acquisition of the 42-acre Goldrock Ridge Vineyard on the so-called True Sonoma Coast near Annapolis.

As Alex Kanzler, a grape-grower and winemaker based in Sonoma County’s Sebastapol Hills, observes, ‘there definitely seems to be a trend that Pinot Noir-centric wineries with available capital are investing in estate properties’.

‘Inventories of top sites, planted or unplanted, are low and shrinking fast’, explains Paul Hobbs, adding that restrictions on developing new vineyard land in Sonoma County is exacerbating the shortage.

Prime vineyards, he tells me, are not only an appreciating asset but also guarantee supply of top quality fruit in an evermore competitive marketplace. What’s more, ownership gives winemakers like Hobbs ultimate control over farming practices in a region where top producers are increasingly fastidious about viticulture.

Some are concerned, however, that the consolidation of vineyard in fewer hands may make it difficult for new start-ups—as well as wineries that rely on purchasing fruit—to compete with the established players.

• Jackson Family Wines acquires Copain Wine
• Constellation Brands to buy ‘luxury’ California wine labels

August’s purchases, however, have been met with optimism. Raj Parr, whose Sandhi label has produced a vineyard-designate Chardonnay bottling from Rita’s Crown Vineyard since 2010, hopes to have the chance to continue working with the site.

‘The folks at Sea Smoke know that part of Santa Rita very well, and I’m sure they will take good care of the vineyard’, he commented.

Ted Lemon of Littorai, who has bottled a Cerise Pinot Noir since 2001, was also positive: ‘We’re already working with Kosta Browne for this year’s upcoming harvest at Cerise’, he told me.

‘We have had several good meetings and they have indicated great enthusiasm for continuing on with Littorai. I have known them, and especially founder Dan Kosta, who is a good friend, for many, many years.’

‘Cerise is a great vineyard site,’ he adds, ‘one of the finest in Anderson Valley, and it will benefit enormously from the resources which Kosta Browne can bring to it.’

Webster Marquez, whose Anthill Farms label has worked with fruit from the Knez Vineyard at Cerise since 2004, agrees. ‘We’re very excited for the property,’ he tells me: ‘It’s a supremely tricky site to farm—there’s a wide variety of soils and exposures, vertiginous terrain, and sometimes punishingly low yields. Everything we’ve heard from the folks at Kosta Brown gives us confidence that they are ready to embrace the history of the property and also take the farming to a whole new place. In short, we couldn’t be happier.’

What seems certain is that if this trend continues, California wine country will soon be a very different place.

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Paul Draper has brought down the curtain on nearly half a century of making wine at the renowned Ridge Vineyards in California, announcing his retirement this month.

Paul Draper, an idol as much among winemakers as California wine drinkers, has used his 80th birthday to officially cease being chief winemaker and CEO of Ridge Vineyards.

Turning 80 ‘seems a most celebratory age to step back’, he told Decanter.com this week. He will continue to be chairman of the Ridge board.

‘I have had a great time, pursuing my craft, my calling, for 50 years – three in Chile, 47 at Ridge.’

Paul Draper: Looking back

Draper, named Decanter Man of the Year back in 2000, can look back on 47 years of considerable achievement.

As a vocal and persuasive champion of old vine Zinfandel, he did much to preserve California’s living viticultural heritage.

He has won for Ridge’s legendary Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon a merited reputation as California’s most dependably age-worthy and exceptional rendition of that variety.

And in his firm but never polemical adherence to a classical paradigm in winemaking, Draper has made Ridge Vineyards a beacon of balance and consistency in a state where wine styles sometimes seem to be in constant flux.

Recognition has been appropriately forthcoming.

In 2000, Draper become the third American to be named Decanter Man of the Year, joining Robert Mondavi and André Tchelistcheff.

He has received the Institute of Masters of Wine Winemakers’ Winemaker Award. As recently as 2006, he was also named winemaker of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle.

New generation at Ridge

For some time now, Draper has been quietly handing over the reins.

Eric Baugher, who becomes chief operating officer and winemaker of Ridge’s Monte Bello winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains, joined Ridge in 1994: the 1995 vintage over which he presided is just reaching maturity.

John Olney, who joined Ridge two years after Baugher, will now assume responsibility for Ridge’s Lytton Springs winery in Sonoma. And David Gates, who joined Ridge in 1989 as vineyard manager, becomes senior vice president of vineyard operations.

‘Though we have made the major tasting decisions together, they were the ones managing all of the day to day winemaking for the past decade,’ Draper said, with characterisic modesty.

‘These are their wines, not mine, and these wines have achieved the most consistent high quality of any decade in our fifty year history.’

It’s Draper, however, who may be said to have given Ridge its soul.

Editing by Chris Mercer.

Related stories:

The Decanter Interview: Paul Draper

With only three years’ experience of winemaking behind him, back in 1969 Paul Draper took on a small, historical vineyard

Paul Draper honoured as ‘Winemakers’ Winemaker’

Paul Draper, the chief winemaker for Ridge Vineyards in California since 1969, was awarded the Institute of Masters of Wine's

Do you struggle to find a Zinfandel you enjoy? Things have changed, says Matt Stamp MS, who explains his love of the variety and picks five to change your mind...

Christelle Guibert, tastings director, says: What I dislike most about Zinfandel is when the super-ripe fruit flavours meet green characters – the result is very unpalatable; like a blend of raisins and over-cooked celery. I’ve recently tasted the Vine Starr Zin from Broc Cellars, which is an elegant, pure and fresh style with low alcohol. But is that the only good one?

Matt Stamp MS, education director for the Guild of Sommeliers and on the board of the Court of Master Sommeliers, replies:

You know, I recently tasted a pretty good UK sparkling wine – is that the only good one? I’m joking, of course, but then again I live in California, where only a pittance of English bubbly trickles through. The good stuff rarely leaves your shores. And so it is with Zinfandel! Many of the best wines are small-production efforts from famous vineyards that rarely leave California. Yet even widely available Zin deserves a second look. The variety often ripens unevenly, resulting in green grapes, fully ripe berries and raisins all in the same cluster, giving a wine whose flavours comprise cranberry and dried fig with a background of under-ripeness. If ignored and picked too late, Zinfandel’s pendulum swing between greenness and jam becomes exaggerated, but controlled yields, coupled with careful management in the vineyard and winery, alleviate imbalance.

• See Stamp’s five Zinfandels to change your mind below

Zinfandel is a soldier in the field, resisting the wood-rotting diseases that kill other vines; troves of centuryold vines are scattered throughout central and northern California. Old vines even out the fruit spectrum and enable ripeness without reaching ultra-hot potential alcohol levels. (Did a market clamouring for white Zinfandel really save old vines from extinction? Did plantings increase during Prohibition because the fruit was hardy enough to send across America for home winemaking?).

There’s enough varied base material to offer winemakers the chance to find multiple expressions, from low alcohol, natural-wine efforts like Broc Cellars’ Vine Starr to the classic, restrained styles of Dashe, Ridge and Porter Creek, to the richer and brawnier – but still balanced – wines of Turley, Bedrock, and Carlisle.

What Zinfandel tastes like

Once touted as distinctly American until US grape geneticist Carole Meredith traced its origins to Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast, Zinfandel can be a brash, loud, amplified echo of its adopted homeland. In one producer’s hands it resembles Amarone or highoctane Châteauneuf-du-Pape; in another’s it delivers lift, elegance and spice. The grape can achieve full flavour ripeness at 13% alcohol in one vineyard and 15% in another. Blending grapes such as Petit Sirah, Carignan and Grenache impact its character and final alcohol level dramatically. American oak rounds out some wines with a muted sweetness, melding adeptly with Zinfandel just as it does with old-school Australian Shiraz or Rioja. Other producers soak up French oak or eschew the flavours of new wood entirely, preferring to showcase the simple vibrancy of Zinfandel fruit. Fresh Beaujolais-like carbonic maceration flavours can breathe life into lighter styles. In short, one size does not fit all. And it’s surprisingly acrobatic at the table: the bigger wines are a great compliment to hamburgers, Texas barbeque and Cantonese cooking, while more restrained styles adapt to a wide variety of dishes.

Finally, don’t count Zinfandel out as a candidate for the cellar. At a recent winemakers’ dinner in Napa Valley highlighting aged Cabernet Sauvignon, Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards (Decanter Man of the Year in 2000) elected not to present Monte Bello, his acclaimed Cabernet, but instead unveiled a 20-year-old Geyserville Zinfandel!

Constellation Brands is set to acquire five fast-growing luxury wine labels, operating under The Prisoner Wine Company banner, for an estimated US$285m.

Constellation Brands will acquire brands including The Prisoner, Saldo, Cuttings, Blindfold and Thorn, all based in California, from fine wine company Huneeus Vintners, with the deal expected to close by the end of April.

Constellation said The Prisoner, which was launched in 2003, was now the top-selling ‘super-luxury red blend’ in the US, thanks to strong growth over the past three years.

A blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Petite Sirah and Charbono (aka Bonarda), it is said to have been inspired by the ‘mixed blacks’ wines originally made by Italian immigrants in the Napa Valley.

Meanwhile, Saldo is described as the number two super-luxury Zinfandel, and Blindfold the top-selling super-luxury white blend.

The five brands sold a combined 175,000 cases of wine in 2015, with volumes growing at an annual rate of 30% over the past three years.

‘More than ever, consumers are seeking high-quality, distinctive wines, and the portfolio we are acquiring from The Prisoner Wine Company delivers,’ said Bill Newlands, president of Constellation’s wine and spirits division.

Constellation president and CEO Rob Sands added: ‘This acquisition aligns with our portfolio premiumisation strategy, enables us to capitalise on US market trends that favour high-end wine brands and strengthens our position in the dynamic and margin-enhancing super-luxury wine category.’

The deal comes after Constellation paid $315m for fast-growing California Pinot Noir brand Meiomi in August last year.

Meanwhile, Constellation said it was considering plans to float its Canadian wine business, including Inniskillin and Jackson-Triggs, via an IPO, thanks to its recent strong performance.

Californian producers are finally making a selection of quality Italian grape variety wines. See Decanter expert Jon Bonne's top picks.

The history of Italian grapes in California has been, to be candid, a near-total failure. Its greatest success was found in the mid-20th century, when jugs of not-quite-Chianti were made from Carignan, Zinfandel and many other varieites California had inherited.

But the Californians success has changed when they thought less about copying Italy and more about incorporating the right grapes into its Pacific culture.

Jon Bonne gives us his top 10 picks of the best Italian varieties in California:

E&J Gallo winery has bought more than 100 hectares of vineyard on the fringes of Napa Valley, as part of its drive to invest in estates producing premium wine.

Gallo said it bought Cypress Ranch and a portion of the Palisades vineyard in Napa Valley via an unnamed ‘affiliate’.

The land lies in Pope Valley in what has been described as the last frontier of Napa Valley, to the north. The move gives Gallo an extra 260 hectares of land, with 104ha of vines planted.

Grape varieties in the acquired vineyard include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel and Malbec and the move forms part of the California wine group’s plan to buy more premium vineyards.

‘These two vineyards are a great addition to our portfolio and are key to our growth of luxury wines,’ said Gallo’s general manager for premium wine, Roger Nabedian.

A fee for the purchase was not disclosed, but pressure for vineyard space in the Napa County area is intense. It is believed that Gallo purchased the vineyard from Flora Springs. Another Gallo vineyard, Sun Lake Vineyard, lies next to the newly acquired land, Gallo said.

In March this year, Gallo bought J Vineyards and winery in Sonoma’s Russian River, best known for making sparkling wine from Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. Last year, Gallo also bought two properties in Solano County, totalling around 200ha.

See also:

• Gallo acquires 90-hectare premium vineyard in California
• Gallo family fortune close to $10bn

Written by Chris Mercer

Primitivo is practically synonymous with Puglia and the south of Italy. Yet it is taking a plucky band of pioneers to re-establish it in its truest form, as a bush vine. Monty Waldin reports

Bush-vine Primitivo

Quick links:

• The origins of Primitivo
• Monty Waldin’s taste of bush-vine Primitivo

The small town of Manduria lies a 40-minute drive southeast of the southern Italian port of Taranto, along a gently rising, arrow-straight road. This is the Salento peninsula, the broiling heel of Italy’s boot.

My father came here in 1944, having landed at Taranto with Allied troops. With his radio receiver he’d crawl in Salento’s dusty, iron-rich red soil, using the local olive groves and vineyards as cover. Back then, Manduria’s vineyards were overflowing with Primitivo, Puglia’s signature red wine grape. Since the vines grew as low free-standing bush or alberello, Primitivo provided the perfect cover. To this day, Primitivo bush vines dating from the 1930s and 1940s remain in this arid part of Italy’s heel. But over the last 20 years most have been ripped out.

Spotting an opportunity

Australian winemaker Lisa Gilbee and her Italian partner Gaetano Morella created their Morella winery in 2000 to try to save some of what old-vine Primitivo remained. Lisa had worked in Italy as a flying winemaker, and settled in Puglia ‘partly because no one else was making single-vineyard Primitivo. Most Australian red wines are based on French grapes, which taste flabby without heavy acid adjustment in the winery,’ she says. ‘Primitivo’s natural inner freshness means no adjustments are needed. And you don’t have to be a millionare to buy Primitivo vines, live near the beach and make wine here.’

The couple now have 17 hectares of vines, 11ha of which are bush-vine Primitivo from the 1940s. Top quality wines usually come from sloping ground, rather than from the flattish terrain of Salento. Yet, Gilbee says, ‘Primitivo subtly reflects minute changes in the terroir. You can taste profound differences between vines grown only metres apart. And bush vines allow each bunch its own unique microclimate of light, heat, shade, wind and rain. The bush has a three-dimensional shape which you just don’t get with onedimensional vines trimmed along wires in straight lines like hedges.’

Despite her eulogy, Gilbee says that ‘at least 80% of Puglia’s old, bush-vine Primitivo has been lost since we started.’ This was largely due to the European Union paying growers to rip out vines to reduce Europe’s wine lake. ‘Bush vines are naturally low yielding and have to be worked mainly by hand rather than by tractor,’ says Gilbee. ‘I understand why growers selling Primitivo by the kilo cheaply to co-ops ripped out their vines. They waited until interest rates were high then banked the subsidy money for their retirement.’

Gilbee particularly laments one recently ripped-out Mandurian Primitivo vineyard called La Pigna. ‘It produced tiny yields of incredibly deeply coloured grapes. It’s hard to remain optimistic when so many really old vineyards are gone. Mostly only vineyards of around 40 years remain,’ she says.

Regional character

Primitivo from Manduria is distinct as far as Puglian Primitivo goes because Manduria’s position in the middle of the Salento peninsula means it gets cooling sea winds from both the Adriatic sea to the east and the closer Ionian sea to the west. Nearby Sava is one of the best areas for Primitivo in the Manduria zone.

Massimiliano Pichierri’s grandfather started making Primitivo in Sava in the 1950s. ‘Sava is only 12km from the Ionian Sea,’ says Pichierri. ‘Sea winds give Primitivo here a savoury quality. But the flavour profile also depends on how deep the topsoil is over the spongy limestone below. The limestone holds the water the vines need to survive. Primitivo vines on 4m of topsoil produce higher yields and lighter wines than vines like ours in Sava, where the topsoil is shallow at less than 1m. We get smaller, more mineral-tasting grapes as a result.’

The Cantele family also works with old bush-vine Primitivo from Sava for its top Fanòi bottling. Umberto Cantele says, ‘Sava and Manduria on the warmer, western Ionian side of Salento are where the best bush vines are. It is harder to find bushvine Primitivo on the eastern Adriatic side as vines there are usually trained to posts and wires to get higher yields. Salento’s unspoilt beaches are making Puglia a tourist destination. Visitors want a food-friendly style of Primitivo, and this is what we try to give them.’

Outside influences

Cantele was the first Puglian winery to host ‘flying winemakers’ in the early 1990s. But the first foreign winemaker to take up residence in Puglia was Mark Shannon. He arrived in 1997 from California, knowing that Puglian Primitivo was the same as his beloved Californian Zinfandel, and realising that there was a terrific opportunity to style wines for modern palates from ‘bush vines so old and beautiful they gave me goose bumps’.

Shannon and his partner Elvezia Sbalchiero own no vineyards but work with growers in what Shannon calls the ‘triangle of Primitivo’, south-east of Taranto in Sava, Manduria and Torricella.

Shannon has a Masters degree in the sensory perception of grape and wine flavours. ‘Primitivo ripens quickly so in just a few days it can go from being underripe to perfectly ripe, and then to raisined and overripe,’ he says. ‘Saving these old vines means working closely with growers, to get grapes that give you the best shot at making clean wines that express the terroir.’

Primitivo pioneer

Primitivo may not have survived in Puglia without the contribution of the Petrera family. Pasquale Petrera says, ‘In the early 19th century, my greatgreat- great-grandfather, Nicola Petrera, rescued a red grape which ripened prima, meaning before all others. It became known as Primitivo, meaning “first selection”.’

The Petrera winery, Fatalone, is located in Gioia del Colle, just north of the Salento peninsula, where cooling sea breezes are less prevalent than on Salento itself. Pasquale Petrera converted his bush-vine Primitivo to overhead pergolas or strung them horizontally along wires. ‘The vines have more leaves to shade the grapes and produce a less overpowering style of Primitivo. Wines with lower levels of alcohol are what modern drinkers want,’ he asserts.

It is debatable whether Pasquale’s approach in modifying his bush vines encompasses what Mark Shannon calls his own ‘modified idealism’ regarding Primitivo’s very survival. ‘These are not grapes to be pushed, manipulated or mishandled. Primitivo is the most sun-loving grape I have seen. Modern training systems are always inferior to the native alberello. There will be opportunities to plant alberello Primitivo again, if you lead by example. The grapes tell you when they are ripe, meaning with just 5% of raisined berries per bunch. Pick then and you will have a great wine.’

My father probably had no time to drink wine from bush-vine Primitivo when he came to Puglia. But I hope he did at least manage to eat some perfectly ripe bush-vine Primitivo grapes.

Wine writer and biodynamic consultant Monty Waldin has made wine in Italy, France and the Americas, and is a DWWA co-Regional Chair for Italy.

Written by Monty Waldin

Next page

Primitivo is practically synonymous with Puglia and the south of Italy. Yet it is taking a plucky band of pioneers to re-establish it in its truest form, as a bush vine. Monty Waldin reports

The origins of Primitivo

Monty Waldin’s taste of bush-vine Primitivo

In the early 1990s they found that a Croatian grape called variously Tribidrag and Crljenak was the same as Primitivo, and all were the same as California’s Zinfandel. Crljenak would have travelled to Italy across the Adriatic Sea, although exactly when this happened may never be known. In the early 1800s the vine went via Austria to America, where it was grown on the East Coast, initially as a table grape. It was then taken to California during the mid-19th-century gold rush, where thirsty miners and others made it into wine, by which time it had become known as Zinfandel.

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Primitivo is practically synonymous with Puglia and the south of Italy. Yet it is taking a plucky band of pioneers to re-establish it in its truest form, as a bush vine. Monty Waldin reports

A taste of bush-vine Primitivo

Morella, Old Vines, Salento Rosso 2011

19.5pts/20 (98/100pts)

85 year-old vines.

This was a low-yield year and produced super-concentrated grapes. Fermented as whole grapes rather than crushed berries to accentuate the fine flavours of black fruit and liquorice. The grapes were gently hand plunged, the wine was run off into barrel by gravity, and bottled by hand. Incredible depth, elegance and moreishness of fruit, with classy tannins running right the way through to leave one’s palate invigorated and refreshed. A monument to old-vine Primitivo.

Price: £34.95 Berry Bros & Rudd

Drink 2016-2026

Alc 14.5%

A Mano, Imprint of Mark Shannon, Appassito, Puglia Rosso 2012

19pts/20 (96/100pts)

40-70 year-old vines.

An inventive red made from Primitivo grapes picked ripe but not overripe which are then left to dry off the vine after picking. They shrivel slightly and gain in concentration. Wonderful balance of savoury tannins and sweet-tasting, fresh crushed raspberry fruit, with an intentionally light spritz. Reminds me of the best Zinfandels that old-timer growers in northern California would make in the 1970s for home consumption. Unputdownable.

Price: £12.99 Widely available via UK agent, Liberty Wines

Drink 2015-2022

Alc 14.8%

Cantele, Fanòi Primitivo, Puglia Rosso 2010

18pts/20 (93/100pts)

40 year-old vines.

A wine which pushes Primitivo’s moreish dark fruits and brighter red cherry flavours to the fore thanks to a cool and quickish fermentation. Ageing in new and second-fill French and American oak barrels has added an appealing sheen of vanilla.

Price: N/A UK cantelevini.com

Drink 2015-2020

Alc 14.5%

Fatalone, Primitivo Riserva, Gioia del Colle 2006

18pts/20 (93/100pts)

16 year-old vines propagated from Primitivo owned by the Petrera family since the early 19th century.

Aged in a cool underground cellar for two years in oak vats. 2006 was a blisteringly hot year, producing ripe, almost raisiny fruit with sweet-savoury tannins giving this appealing mouthfeel. Opens up to reveal soft tobacco textures and crisper red cherry flavours. A winter warmer.

Price: £16.68-£18.50 Exel Wines, Les Caves de Pyrène

Drink 2015-2021

Alc 15%

Savese, Il Sava, Primitivo di Manduria Dolce Naturale 2007

18.5pts/20 (95/100pts)

50-60 year old vines.

The grapes are picked late when slightly shrivelled on the vine for concentration. Aged for two years in large oak vats and sealed in locally handmade terracotta amphorae. Rich, smooth and slightly sweet with individual, savoury Christmas cake flavours and generous, rich mouthfeel. A Primivito like grandad used to make.

Price: £26 Bat & Bottle

Drink 2015-2018

Alc 16%

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A new film tracking the journey of Zinfandel from its Croatian roots to its status as a signature grape variety of California has debuted at a packed screening in the US state.

Dossier Zinfandel features several high-profile figures in California’s wine sector, including Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards and Ravenswood founder Joel Peterson.

Mike Grgich, of Grgich Hills Estate (pictured) and who is credited with making the connection between California Zinfandel and the indigenous grape varieties of his native Croatia, also appears prominently in the film, which premiered at the recent Napa Valley Film Festival.

The film describes how Zinfandel had been considered a ‘state grape’ native to California. In the 1980s, in particular, millions of gallons of sweet White Zinfandel became ‘an introductory wine for a lot of Americans’, says Tim Mondavi, son of Robert Mondavi and of Continuum Estate.

Action then moves to Grgich and a team of scientists on a search of old vineyards along Croatia’s Dalmatian coast.

In 2001, researchers found an identical genetic match between Zinfandel vines in California and Croatia’s native Crljenak Kaštelanski.

Carole Meredith, the former UC Davis geneticist responsible for confirming the match between Zinfandel and the Croatian Crljenak Kaštelanski, told decanter.com that the film could have said more about Zinfandel’s history as an important commercial grape.

‘The film does not cover what we now know in terms of the ancient nobility of Zinfandel. Trade records going back to the 1300s all show that it was called by name [Tribidrag at the time].

‘Varietal names didn’t really become important until practically the 20th Century, so it was really kind of remarkable.’

More recently, there has been interest in finding, preserving and propagating old Zinfandel vineyards in California, led initially by Draper and carried forward by the Historical Vineyard Society.

Written by Courtney Humiston

Family-owned Zinfandel specialist Seghesio Family Vineyards has been bought by Crimson Wine Group for an undisclosed sum.

The Seghesio family will remain closely involved in the running of the Sonoma estate, with third generation member Peter Seghesio taking on the role of winegrower, and Ted Seghesio staying on as winemaker.

‘We wanted to keep the heart and soul of the winery intact with the family, who will continue to inform the vision and create its success,’ said Crimson Wine Group CEO Erle Martin.

The Seghesios had been producers of cheaper Zinfandels and table wines until the family repositioned in the 1990s, cutting yields and improving quality to tap into the burgeoning premium wine boom in the US.

The deal cements Crimson’s position as an owner of estates dedicated to particular varietals, including Oregon Pinot Noir specialist Archery Summit, Burgundian-themed Chamisal Vineyards in California’s Edna Valley, and Pine Ridge Vineyards, the Cabernet Sauvignon-focused winery in Stag’s Leap District.

Written by Richard Woodard

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Video: Joel Peterson 03:20

SWA: Essential guide to Spanish Garnacha - Jane Parkinson 06:09

SWA: Altitude in Spanish wines - Helena Nicklin 03:56

SWA: Journey through the Spanish Landscape - Susy Atkins 06:55

SWA: Ageworthy whites from Spain - Sarah Jane Evans MW 11:36

The rich diversity of Spanish wines 09:12

Decanter Fine Wine Encounter 2017 01:25

DWWA 2017 Judging Week video 01:58

How to taste en primeur wines 00:00

Decanter Fine Wine Encounter 2016: Discovery Theatres 01:00

Decanter Fine Wine Encounter 2016 02:24

Video: How to make mulled wine for Christmas 04:12

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California Wines Green Tour - Promotion 01:06

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California Wines Food Tour - Promotion 01:01

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Mouton Rothschild gives label artist Lee Ufan a cellar tour 01:37

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Founder and chief winemaker of Ravenswood Joel Peterson talks to Decanter's Lucy Shaw about what winemakers need to do to get Zinfandel recognised as a world class wine, how zinfandel ages, being bought by Constellation, and why there are so many 'wimpy wines' in the world.

Written by Lucy Shaw

Playlist 20 Videos

Video: Joel Peterson 03:20

SWA: Essential guide to Spanish Garnacha - Jane Parkinson 06:09

SWA: Altitude in Spanish wines - Helena Nicklin 03:56

SWA: Journey through the Spanish Landscape - Susy Atkins 06:55

SWA: Ageworthy whites from Spain - Sarah Jane Evans MW 11:36

The rich diversity of Spanish wines 09:12

Decanter Fine Wine Encounter 2017 01:25

DWWA 2017 Judging Week video 01:58

How to taste en primeur wines 00:00

Decanter Fine Wine Encounter 2016: Discovery Theatres 01:00

Decanter Fine Wine Encounter 2016 02:24

Video: How to make mulled wine for Christmas 04:12

2016 Decanter Shanghai Fine Wine Encounter consumer video 02:22

California Wines Green Tour - Promotion 01:06

California road trip video - Promotion 01:26

California Wines Food Tour - Promotion 01:01

Discover California wines - Promotion 03:03

Mouton Rothschild gives label artist Lee Ufan a cellar tour 01:37

Decanter Shanghai Fine Wine Encounter 2015 video highlights 03:55

Vintage Video: How to handle a wine - episode 3 03:14

Donn Reisen, the president of top Californian winery Ridge and a firm advocate for the Zinfandel variety, has died aged 60.

Reisen, who joined Ridge in 1977, is credited with running the business of the winery behind the more public figure of Paul Draper, its winemaker and CEO.

He was found dead in his car in Portola Valley, 13km from the Ridge winery, on Monday evening. Although the cause of death has not officially been confirmed, it is understood that he died following a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Donn Paul Reisen, a pyschology student and budding winemaker, joined Ridge as a part-time cellarhand. Four years later, in 1981, he was made marketing and sales director.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, he travelled throughout the US selling Ridge wines and was widely respected for ‘maintaining Ridge’s stature in the face of upstart competitors and changing tastes’.

He was also a firm supporter of the Zinfandel variety. One of the founding members of the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers trade group (ZAP) and, later, serving as president and member of board of directors, Reisen drew parallels between the grape and American culture and origins.

‘America is a melting pot of cultures and Zinfandel, like the European immigrants to the US, is part of our American history,’ he told the Chronicle.

He became president of Ridge in 2001. He was, however, badly injured in a road accident several years later.

Paul Draper, the public face of Ridge, paid tribute to Reisen, saying his humour and friendship ‘touched everyone he came into contact with.’

‘We will miss him,’ he added. ‘He left the world a better place for having lived. A memorial service to celebrate his life is being planned for a future date.’

He is survived by his wife, Marilyn.

• Condolences and any stories readers wish to share with those at Ridge can be sent directly to the winery at condolences@ridgewine.com and/or ‘Have your say’ below.Written by Oliver Styles, and agencies

Zinfandel may not have been born in the USA, but, says JEFF COX, it's become a much-loved Californian classic with a very American stamp

Why do Americans love their Zinfandel so? This is, in part, a loaded question, since Zinfandel is made in every conceivable style: from light blush to wine so dark and syrupy you could pour it on your pancakes. Not only that, but it changes character significantly depending on whereabouts in California it’s grown. But classic Zinfandel – spicy, peppery, brambly-briary and fruity – is all the rage in the States right now. Its charm is in its rustic exuberance. It has soul. ‘At harvest time,’ says Tom Mackey, director of winemaking at St Francis Winery in Sonoma County, ‘growers bring in the Cabernet in new trucks and ride fancy cars. The Zinfandel arrives in a motley assortment of old 1940s and 1950s-era vehicles, and the growers are just as earthy and uncomplicated. That only happens with Zinfandel.’

FIELD WORK

He might have added that many of the best Zinfandel vineyards are as unique and old-fashioned as the trucks and the growers. These historic estates are scattered everywhere in the north coast counties – gnarly, head-trained vines without trellising that have seen a hundred harvests come and go; vines planted seven feet apart in rows seven feet apart so a horse-drawn cultivator could pass through both ways. The vines are mostly Zinfandel, but the immigrant Italians who planted them knew how to make a field blend; consequently, they interspersed the Zin with a few vines of other grapes: Carignan, Petite Sirah, Mataro (the old Italian name for Mourvedre), Alicante Bouschet and even a few vines of white grapes like Golden Chasselas.

While Zinfandel can be quite good, even noble, on its own, it’s the field blends that show the most character and create the most excitement on the palate. But these old-vine vineyards, now so treasured, were once almost lost forever. The ancient vines were producing half the amount of conservatively cropped younger vineyards – wine which was, in turn, sold for half the price of Cabernet. Winemakers treated Zin as second-rate, letting it hang until fermenters became available, instead of picking it at its peak and assigning it to old barrels. Buyers drifted over to Cabernet’s higher quality and stylistic consistency, and farmers started ripping out the old vines as unprofitable.

A VARIETY REBORN

Then, in the 1970s, Sutter Home sallied forth with a blush version of the wine, a cheap, sugary drink which became the entry-level wine for a younger generation of Americans. White Zin, made from the red Zin grapes but without using the skin, was an instant hit. Farmers stopped ripping, and the old vineyards were saved. Today, Zinfandel sells for about $2,400 a tonne, and Cabernet Sauvignon for $2,600. A total of four million cases of Zin were sold in 2002, a quarter of which were wines priced at the high end of $15 to $30 a bottle. According to Michelle Rowell, senior marketing consultant with Motto, Kryla and Fisher, a wine business advisory firm in St Helena, there has been solid growth in sales of high-end Zinfandels for the past five years. ‘This means that Zin aficionados will spend, so we think we’ll see continued strong growth in this segment,’ she says. Meanwhile, there’s been a recent decline in sales of Zinfandels priced below $15. ‘Those young folks who cut their teeth on sweet, pink white Zin have discovered the real stuff.’

https://www.decanter.com/premium/premium-home/producer-profile-trinchero-family-estates-435317/

But what is the ‘real stuff’? The original European home of Zinfandel has long been debated. Then, in the summer of 2002, the University of California, using DNA-matching techniques, announced that the grape we call Zinfandel, and the Italians call Primitivo, are both Crljenak Kastelanski.

The vine comes from the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. In a fabulous stroke of luck, Croatian researchers found 20 vines of this grape, despite the fact that it is almost extinct in its homeland today. We don’t know what Crljenak Kastelanski does in Croatia, but in California it has become an amazingly open, fruity, faceted and noble grape – when planted in the right places.

Although lack of respect for the variety led many producers in the early 1980s to make massive, over-ripe, alcoholic and raisiny Zinfandels – certainly not fit for drinking with dinner and possibly only fit as a cheap substitute for port – some producers had been making Zin with restraint and regard for the nobility of the grape for years.

Joseph Swan Vineyards, under the hand of Joe Swan and then his son-in-law Rod Berglund, has been making beautifully crafted wines from old-vines since Swan’s first attempt in 1968. ‘Zins are wonderful because they don’t require years of age to be good or a degree in wine appreciation to be understood,’ Berglund says. Dave Stare at Dry Creek Vineyards was another one of the first in California’s modern viticultural era to take Zin seriously, releasing an old-vine Zin in 1973. That programme has continued into today’s old-vine, vineyard-designated wines. Then, from the early 1980s to his current 2000 bottling of Dickerson Vineyard Zinfandel, Joel Peterson of Ravenswood has shown that Napa Valley old-vine Zin can rival any in the state for sheer quality.

Leading the charge

Meanwhile, Paul Draper at Ridge Vineyards seeks out superb old vineyards in many places around California and creates a line of Zins that amount to a short course in their terroirs; Dave Rafanelli of A Rafanelli Winery has been crafting exquisite Zins from the Dry Creek Valley – one of the premier sites for Zinfandel in California – for 20 years; and Doug Nalle, also in Dry Creek, has become known for his pure, elegant Zins matured in expensive French oak. These winemakers, among others, have led the current trend toward Zinfandels with breeding and balance rather than sheer muscle.

But for all their diversity, one thing shared by the majority of Zinfandel wines and winemakers is their recent vintages. 1999 was a stand-out, 2000 was okay, 2001 was very good, and 2002 is truly exceptional. While winemakers always say that about their current vintage, this time – from what I’ve tasted from barrel – they could just be right.

https://www.decanter.com/wines-of-california/california-grape-varieties-site-matters-377209/

About the only thing that Zinfandel can’t do is ride a bicycle blindfold. Indeed, its very versatility has marred its reputation. You can make it pink and dry, pink and slightly sweet, red and juicy, red and sweet, red and alcoholic, or as a ‘port’. Each style has its devotees, although the so-called ‘white Zinfandel’, usually vinified as a sickly rosé, has few admirers among serious wine lovers.

Origins of Zinfandel

For some years there has been intense debate over the origins of Zinfandel. It is the same variety as Primitivo, yet not necessarily of Puglian origin, since there is no confirmed record of its having been planted there before 1850. By the 1820s American nurserymen had brought cuttings from Austria to Long Island. From there the grape was shipped to California. It is also related to the Croatian variety Plavac Mali. Genetic research at UC Davis has established that Zinfandel is either one of the parents of Plavac Mali, or that Plavac Mali is one of the parents of Zinfandel. A definitive answer is said to be imminent.

Whatever Zinfandel’s origin, it soon became a variety ideally suited to California’s warm, dry climate. It flourished on the benchlands of northern Sonoma, on the warm rocky soils of northern Napa around Calistoga, on the flattish vineyards around Lodi, and in San Luis Obispo county. Nineteenth-century vineyards are still going strong in the Sierra Foothills. In Mendocino producers such as Hidden Cellars and Fife have sought out the best old vineyards from hillside sites.

The demand

Ironically, the commercial success of white Zinfandel has been the saviour of the variety, which might otherwise have been grubbed up and replaced by more fashionable Bordeaux varieties. Devotees of serious red Zinfandel – Paul Draper of Ridge, Kent Rosenblum in Berkeley, Jerry Seps of Storybook Mountain and Joel Peterson of Ravenswood – kept interest alive by releasing marvellous wines at sensible prices. Today, annual meetings of ZAP (Zinfandel Appreciation Society) are mobbed.

With some 125 wineries now producing Zinfandel, competition is fierce for the best old vine fruit. Robert Biale, a Zinfandel specialist in Napa, points out that the variety only accounts for five percent of the area under vine in Napa Valley. Given how little Zinfandel survives in Napa, there are plenty of excellent wines to be found from wineries such as Burgess, Elyse, Biale, Markham, Storybook and Stonehedge.

Despite the demand, true old-vine Zinfandel is in decline through disease and ludicrously low yields. This is worrying, since modern clones of Zinfandel have proved mediocre, being originally developed for high-yielding vines destined for white Zinfandel. Fortunately, a handful of growers have supplied bud wood from the very best old vineyards in Sonoma, which should enable their genetic legacy to survive. UC Davis has also established a Heritage Project with over 50 different selections, but it will be years before these become available.

Taste of Zinfandel

Even though prices have risen, Zinfandel continues to offer better value than most Cabernet or Merlot from California. But it lacks a clear profile, since the wine, even in its serious red manifestations, can show such stylistic variation. It should have a sweet berry fruit on the nose and palate, and it often has a jammy component, which some consumers like, and others detest. Nor is this stylistic question entirely in the hands of the grower. Zinfandel ripens unevenly, although green-harvesting can help to eliminate the least ripe bunches. But the same bunch can include ripe berries with a potential alcohol of 14 degrees, and raisined berries that can easily give 16.5. There is a vogue for powerful, high- alcohol Zinfandels. Turley is the leading producer with wines ranging in alcohol from 15 to 17. Most of them are vinified dry, but a few may have some residual sugar, rather like an Italian Recioto. In the late 1960s and 1970s there were quite a few late harvest Zinfandels on the market, almost always with some residual sugar; such wines could be delicious but usually cracked up after 10 years in bottle. The new wave of late harvest wines, however, tend to be bruisers.

I can’t disguise the fact that I dislike these wines, just as I dislike any wine with an alcoholic burn on the finish. Ripe Zinfandel can easily ferment to 15 degrees, and if properly vinified the result is rich, flamboyant and juicy. Paul Draper’s famed Zinfandels from Ridge vary in alcohol from 13.8 to 15 and seem extremely well balanced.

‘It’s the very big wines,’ Draper reflects, ‘that attract attention from the wine press. So any winemaker trying to make a name for himself with Zinfandel will aim for this high-alcohol style. There’s always been a cult of big wines in California, and with Zinfandel they’re not that hard to make.’

Turley argues that by picking late they can avoid high acidity, though I don’t discern any harsh acidity in the more moderate wines of Ravenswood and Nalle. They also believe that by waiting they end up with rounder and fleshier wines.

Certainly the flavour profile alters radically according to the ripeness levels at which the grapes are picked. According to Cecil DeLoach of Russian River Valley, Zinfandel harvested at 22 or 23 Brix – which would be unusually low in California – would taste of cranberries and raspberries; picked fully ripe at around 25 Brix, it tastes more of black fruits and blueberries; and picked very late it develops a taste of raisins, prunes and port.

Making the wine

Zinfandel is not a very tannic variety, so extraction is not really an issue. Paul Draper explains: ‘At Ridge we use a submerged cap method during fermentation. We don’t use cold soaks and we don’t punch down the cap. There’s no need to macerate the hell out of Zin.’ Joel Peterson of Ravenswood remarks: ‘Most producers don’t want to make Zinfandel as a vin de garde, especially as most consumers want juicy upfront wines with soft tannins. Personally, we like to make Zinfandel that has guts and balance.’ Mike Sullivan at Hartford Court in Russian River Valley handles Zinfandel just like Pinot Noir, fermenting in open-top vats and punching down the cap. There is no consensus on how to make Zinfandel.

https://www.decanter.com/wine/grape-varieties/pinot-noir/

As for oak, Ridge is one of many leading producers to age his Zinfandel in American oak, believing that its sweetish vanillin flavours blend well with the rich fruitiness of Zinfandel. Dan Cederquist, DeLoach’s winemaker, agrees. ‘Putting Zin into French oak,’ he says, ‘is like putting perfume on John Wayne.’ Nonetheless, some wineries, including Franus, Ravenswood and Pezzi King, use only French barrels for ageing their Zinfandel.

https://www.decanter.com/learn/oak-barrels-335990/

Whereas some producers, such as Frog’s Leap in Napa and Nalle in Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley, make a single wine, blending the fruit from various sources, most Zinfandel specialists delight in a range of single-vineyard bottlings. Turley, Biale, Ravenswood, Swan, Hartford Court, Storybook Farm, Elyse and Rosenblum may release up to a dozen different bottlings.

And this is where the fun begins. At Biale you can compare wines made from the old vines planted on Aldo Biale’s property on the fringes of Napa itself, with wines made from the celebrated Monte Rosso vineyard in Sonoma. Ravenswood makes a Monte Rosso too, which you can compare with the cedary Dickerson Vineyard from Napa Valley (90-year vines) or the powerful Old Hill bottling, with its black cherry and black pepper tones. Hartford Court releases four single-vineyard Zins, all from dry-farmed sites in Russian River Valley.

With so many corners of the state growing splendid Zinfandel, it’s hard to point to a heartland. But I think that honour has to go to Dry Creek Valley and northern Sonoma, the source of Ridge’s grand field blends from Geyserville and Lytton Springs, and home to a number of small wineries that produce sumptuous, well balanced wines, rich in fruit, well judged in alcohol, and balanced to the point of elegance. Leading names are Nalle, Quivira, Pezzi King, Rafanelli and Yoakim Bridge.

Collectible and Vintage

Zinfandel tends not to be a ‘collector’s wine’ because it doesn’t age well. As Joel Peterson points out, most wines are destined for early consumption. He has, however, encountered some remarkable old Zins; wines that with age lose their vibrant fruitiness and gain spicy, leafy qualities. Dan Cederquist says it’s acidity rather than tannin that keeps the wine going, although it can lose its fruit. Paul Draper finds his wines are best at five to eight years old, then go into a shell for 10 years, sometimes emerging as distinguished old bottles. But keeping Zinfandel for more than 10 years is risky. Napa Valley producer Peter Franus believes that the burly high-alcohol wines lose their fruit rapidly. ‘My priority,’ he says, ‘is to make a wine that’s enjoyable young.’

Vintages are not an issue with Zinfandel. Certainly 1994, 1995, and possibly 1997 and 1999, are superb. 1998 remains controversial, having been rubbished by James Laube in The Wine Spectator but admired by Robert Parker. I have certainly encountered many delicious 1998s, not marked by the green tannins and high acidity noted by Laube. It is a year that discouraged big powerful wines – even Turley made Zins with some elegance.

Zinfandel should, above all, give pleasure. It’s not a prince like Cabernet, nor a French mistress like Pinot Noir. It’s Rubens, not Vermeer. A slight sluttishness is part of Zinfandel’s appeal, offering joyful fruitiness, a rousing warmth on the palate, lush texture and a long spicy finish. If it provides food for thought and meditation, as a great Ridge Geyserville can do, so much the better. But that’s not the essence of Zinfandel’s appeal, and that’s why the monumental, over-extracted, rasping wines from Turley and their imitators seem so anomalous.