2007 Zinfandel, Casa Santinamaria
Vineyard:Planted in the heart of Sonoma Valley during the late 1800’s, Casa Santinamaria is one of California’s few remaining ‘field blended” vineyards. Unlike the single varietal vineyards of today, field blended vineyards – a traditional European practice brought to California by Italian immigrants – are interplanted with a several complementary varietals intended for the final blend. Our Casa Santinamaria Vineyard is planted to a classic field blend of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Carignane, Alicante Bouschet and Mataro; all of which play a role in the complexity and structure of the final wine. Due to the age of the vines and the fact that are dry farmed, the yields are well below average for Zinfandel, the clusters are very small and the fruit is very concentrated. In 2006 we were once again able to harvest less than 0.5 tons/acre.
Winemaking:
As with the vineyard, our winemaking style is deeply rooted in traditions of Italian field blending.In 2007 our Casa Santinamaria Zinfandel was harvested at 25.5 brix into small bins during the cool of the early morning. The vineyard is picked altogether and co-fermented The grapes were de-stemmed into an open-top fermenter (95% whole berry), “cold-soaked” for 36 hours, and inoculated with a low rate of yeast to allow the “wild yeast” to have an effect before the cultured yeast takes over. After fermentation the wine was racked to new and one year old French barrels and aged in barrel for 24 months and in bottle for an additional 12. Our extended aging protocol – long by most Zinfandel standards gives this very intense and concentrated wine time to come together. Our Casa Santinamaria Zinfandel is meant to show fine fruit and nuance in its youth and reward patience with more deeply complex flavors and structure over time. To experience the unusual aging potential of our Casa Santinamaria Zinfandel, cellar for 10 or more years.
Tasting Notes:
Our 2007 Casa Santinamaria Zinfandel has an intense raspberry and dried cranberry signature that seems to run from year to year, along with black cherry/berry, dark chocolate and sweet elegant oak tones. On the mouth this wine has great structure, acid and a mélange of dried raspberry, mocha and dark chocolate dust reminiscent of a decadent raspberry chocolate torte. This is a very rich and long wine.
Case Production: 350 cases
Retail Price:
$36.00