Dry farmed and organically grown, our zinfandel comes from our estate vineyard ‘Sleeping Dog’ of Sonoma Mountain, which produces spicy, elegant, and finessed Sonoma County style zinfandel from a mixture of volcanic and sandy loam soils at 1500 ft elevation. These are old head pruned vines planted over 58 years ago, and the flavors they are capable of are outstanding.
The major factor of the 2022 growing season (which in general was a pretty uneventful, long and cool summer) was an epic 115 deg heat spike around Labor Day that lasted for 4 days. None of our fruit was even close to ripe before the heat spike, and the effects of the hot stretch are present in the wines. Atypical for our old vine mountain vineyard: this is the richest and biggest zin we’ve ever made (which means it will probably also be everyone’s favorite), sitting at about 14.8% abv and loaded with rich, raspberry and strawberry flavors. Behind the big fruit you’ll find loads of baking spice goodness, a testament to the regenerative/organic dry farming we’ve been doing on these 58 year vines for the past 12 years. These extra notes come from the soil and make us happy because it means even in the biggest of years, these mountain soil spice notes can shine in the wine!
As always, bottled unfined and unfiltered after being aged in 20% new American oak barrels. Our flagship wine is very versatile: perfect with a cheeseburger or saucy American BBQ, as well as slow cooked meats, spicy curries, or pasta. One of our all time favorite pairings was during a multi course Barber Cellars restaurant event: Mr. Beast with squid ink pasta and clams. It was amazing!
