2015 Zinfandel West BS | MAGNUM

History

We’ve long used this vineyard owned by our friend Tom West as one of the major components of our Dry Creek Zinfandel. These head-trained old vines always produce one of the biggest and darkest Zinfandels we make, and as time went on we realized it was a perfect wine for a single-vineyard offering. The wine is big, explosively aromatic, and quite rich in both mouthfeel and texture.  

Production

We made a tiny amount of wines from these grapes, but the wine we made was clearly great the second we crushed the grapes. In the fermenter, the wine turned inky black within a day or two of crushing. To make this Barrel Select wine, we individually tasted each barrel and selected the few barrels we found to be unusually complex or intense. In blending, we added 3% Petite Sirah for intensity and complexity. Initially, we hand-sorted the grapes on a conveyor, to eliminate any leaves or imperfect fruit. The crushed grapes were then fermented using only the natural yeast population on the grapes to conduct the fermentation. At dryness, the wine was gently pressed in a membrane press and pumped to traditional 60-gallon oak barrels. Since the wine had great structure and substantial tannins, we decided to bottle in magnums, which allows the wine to mature slowly over time. This is a great wine to age in your cellar and then bring to parties to share! 

Production: 93 cases

Tasting Notes