2017 Zinfandel, Lily Hill Vineyard | MAGNUM

History

One of the most vibrant and fruit-forward zinfandels made at Dashe Cellars, the Lily Hill vineyard is an ongoing favorite of Dashe Cellars fans. The vineyard is owned by Scott and Lynn Adams of Bella Vineyards and Winecaves, who named this vineyard after their daughter Lillia. The vineyard is located on a steep, rocky slope with a very thin layer of dirt over red volcanic rock, which makes these vines struggle to produce tiny amounts of black, intense grapes.

Production

Luckily, we harvested these grapes long before the fires that engulfed the nearby mountains later in the year in 2017. The vines produced perfectly mature Zinfandel, which was harvested into ½ ton picking bins, then hand-sorted on conveyors, and finally fermented using the native yeasts found naturally on the grapes. These grapes always ferment slowly, and the wine characteristically is very dark and extremely intense in flavor due to the time on skins. Because it’s a structured wine, we let it age for 20 months in a combination of new and older French oak barrels. As the wine aged, it deepened in color and developed a complexity and firm structure that we believe will help the wine improve with up to fifteen years of bottle age.

Production: 108 cases, 1.5L

Tasting Notes