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- RIDGE VINEYARDS
 No other winery has brought as much attention to Zinfandel as Ridge Vineyards.
If you don't know Ridge, you don't know Zinfandel.
Simple as that.
When they were founded the idea was to make red wines and Zinfandel was more readily
available on the grape market than was Cabernet Sauvignon. Some fellows
who worked at the Stanford Research Institute were curious about wine and
this "hobby" turned into one of the top wine "domaines"
in California.
Charlie
Rosen, Dave Bennion & Hew Crane...
These guys were the original owners of
Ridge...Dave Bennion quite SRI and became the winemaker in 1967 until they hired
a young pup named Paul Draper to take over the winemaking duties.
The Montebello name was used for Burgundy, Chablis and
Riesling, once upon a time!
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With Cabernet in short supply, Ridge
purchased Zinfandel grapes from Paso Robles, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Amador and
Lodi. The wines were all fermented individually and bottled either as a
single-vineyard wine or as a regional bottling. This practice continues today, the
flagship wines being "Geyserville" and "Lytton Springs".
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The late Donn Reisen...
A photo of Donn in his days as the tasting room manager at Ridge...
He later became VP of sales and then was the President/GM until his untimely
passing in 2008.
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Ridge, you see, had an early grasp on the idea of "terroir,"
finding the various batches of Zinfandel to be different depending upon
where the fruit was grown. Over the years, Sonoma County has become a
prime source for fruit and so they make a number of different Sonoma
wines.
They used to make dozens of different batches of wine. Sometimes
they'd have a "late bottling" of a wine, what with cooperage and
storage space being scarce. Experimentation has always been done at
Ridge...and it's been quite a training ground for winemakers. Paul
Draper came on board decades ago and he's still over-seeing cellar
operations.
Minimal
cellar treatments are employed in an effort to bottle the most aromatic and flavorful
wines. The wines of the early 1970s were really monumental, some of them still
tasting like barrel samples today (backwards and youthful)!
The winemaking has been refined over the years
and today Ridge, generally, puts out a pretty good bottle of Zinfandel.
What's interesting is the evolution of their wine and style since those
early days.
Wines from the early 1970s were hugely extracted, dark, often a bit potent
(in those days, 14% alcohol was considered a monster...today you'll find
Zins at 16+% alcohol!). Over the years the wines have become more
elegant and refined. While they may have appealed to "new"
wine fans in the early 1970s, today they may appeal to more
"mature" palates.
At one point in time, wine writers would advise readers to know the "3 R's
of Zinfandel, Ridge, Ravenswood and Rosenblum." Given some of the
spotty wines of Ravenswood and Rosenblum, I'd say you only need to know one
"R": Ridge.
We have several wines in the store, typically.
And keep in mind Ridge
is a source for some of California's best Cabernet and Chardonnay.
So...
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The 2009 Lytton Springs comes from this special vineyard in Sonoma near the
Dry Creek Valley. It's an older vineyard and is a field blend...the
old-timers planted a number of odd varieties in the same vineyard with the
idea of producing a blended red without their having to do blending trials
in the lab. In fact, nobody in those days had a lab. Deep,
dark...mildly berryish with a spice note.
Three Valleys takes the place of what used to be called "Coast
Range" in the really old days and "Sonoma Station" more
recently. It is a Zin-based blend with fruit coming from the Russian
River, Dry Creek and Alexander Valley regions. I suppose if they had
grapes from Glen Ellen, for example, they'd have to re-name it Four
Valleys. Anyway, it's a very nice bottle of Zin in 2009,
medium-bodied and ready to drink now. And it's affordable at our sale
price...
The 2008 Geyserville is a full-bodied, berryish and mildly spicy Zin. Brambly and
notes of cocoa make for a complex, deep wine. It's drinkable now,
certainly, and will cellar well for 3-6 more years (at least).
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- Currently available:
2009 Lytton Springs Zin, etc. SALE $29.99
2009 "Three Valleys" Zin (List $23)
SALE $19.99
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- 2008 Geyserville 750ml (List $35) SALE
$29.99
2009 Lytton Springs Magnum (List $75) SALE $69.99
3 Liter bottles of Geyserville and Lytton
Springs are usually in stock, as well.
- PEDRONCELLI
 When
you're an old-time winery with a long track record, you're often over-looked
by those searching for the latest, most 'hip' wines.
Pedroncelli has been around for decades and we've known their wines going
back to the late 1960s and can recall tasting their excellent 1970 Pinot
Noir and 1970 Cabernet Sauvignon. The family still runs the place, a
smallish facility on Canyon Road in Geyserville.
We've often got wines from Pedroncelli as they make good wines which are
sensibly priced. They get little recognition from today's critics,
since the wines are not amped up and tasting as though they were made from
grapes "on steroids."
We've been especially fond of their "Mother Clone" Zinfandel, made
from a vineyard within the Dry Creek appellation. The vines were
propagated from their ancient, about-100-year-old original parcel of
Zinfandel planted by Grandpappy Pedroncelli. The vines are actually
about 25 years old, though they do blend in the grapes from the quarter acre
parcel of original vines.
A blend of Zinfandel and Petite Sirah, the 2009 is a delicious wine.
Lots of nice berry fruit and some brown spice tones make for a delightful
combination. The wine is not sweet, nor is it the over-the-top style
which catches the fancy of wine "tasters," who have a different
perspective than wine "drinkers." On the other hand, it
works well with food and you can share the whole bottle with a friend or two
and live to tell about it.
We included the 2005 in a blind-tasting of
Sonoma Zins and it did very well, despite being priced at less than half of
most of the other wines!
I found, though, this wine, like the 2005, really blossoms if you can give it an hour in a
decanter or carafe. Tops!
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- Currently in stock: 2009 PEDRONCELLI Dry Creek "Mother
Clone" ZINFANDEL $12.99
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- SEGHESIO
 The
Seghesio family has been making wine in Sonoma County since the late 1890s.
The winery used to be a "bulk producer" and only in the 1980s did they start
bottling their own wines. The new generation of Seghesios convinced the old-timers
that investment in stainless steel, temperature-controlled fermentation tanks (to replace
the open-top, cement tanks) and minor details like small oak barrels would be a good
idea.
I know the "kids" were persistent and today they're making some
terrific wines.
As they own substantial acreage, they're not having to buy expensive
grapes on today's high-flying market. Their "Sonoma"
Zin blend has been a winner for many years now, unfortunately garnering high
scores in some wine journals. We say "unfortunately" because
this means all sorts of people are suddenly hunting for this wine, whether
it's suitable for their taste-buds or not.
So many people need a third party to "validate" their taste in
wine and they get a thrill from putting a bottle on the table and announcing
it "received a 200 point score" from some critic. We've long
been fans of Seghesio's Sonoma Zin, as it's been consistently good.
While we've usually had an ample supply of this wine every year over the
past two decades, now that the wine is famous and stores and restaurants
who've never been associated with Seghesio are suddenly lining up and
demanding their "share." This means a smaller slice of the
pie for long-standing customers such as Weimax.
The 2008 is a good example of Seghesio Zin...deep in color, teeming with
berry-like fruit notes and a hint of an underlying spicy element...it is
drinkable immediately and pairs with a wide range of foods. It comes
from a number of Sonoma vineyard sites and it's blended with a bit of Petite
Sirah which adds color, body and a spice note.
- Currently available:
2009 Sonoma County Zinfandel (List $24) SALE $19.99
Sonoma Zin 375ml bottles $12.49
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CAROL SHELTON The
Shelton family hails from Hillsborough. Mom and Dad were travel
business folks. Son Bruce is a "wine geek" of a supreme
level, while daughter Carol ventured off to U.C. Davis before continuing her
education at the University of Robert Mondavi (Oakville campus). She
labored for many years at the Rodney Strong/Windsor Vineyards facility in
Sonoma. Now she's started her own label and features a trio of
Zinfandels.
We have one wine from Carol, presently. Her
wines have often been in the shop since her first vintage, the 2000's.
Our favorite is called "Wild Thing" and it's from an older,
organically-farmed vineyard in Mendocino. The "wild" refers
to Carol's not inoculating the juice with a cultured strain of yeast.
Some winemakers call this a "wild yeast" fermentation, though the
wild yeast are not especially tolerant of alcohol. This is risky,
because if other ambient yeasts don't kick in you've got a major disaster
brewing. Well, Carol's wine fermented and it sports a level of alcohol
that'll bowl you over if you don't drink this with food. The 2004
shows notes of violets on the nose and a lightly jammy element. It's
big and round.
She also makes "Karma" Zin from the Russian River Valley and one
called "Rocky Reserve" from the Rockpile region of the Dry Creek
Valley.
Another comes from the desert-like growing conditions in Southern California's
"Cucamonga" district. It's dubbed "Monga" as it's
"humongous" Cucamonga Zin. Big, somewhat jammy, high-toned
spices and a chocolate quality will knock you over unless you've fastened
your seat belt.
We can order these for you.-
- Currently in stock:
2004 "Wild Thing" Zin Sold Out
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- ROBERT BIALE
 The Biale family has been growing grapes and other crops in the Napa Valley for many
years. One customer, seeing the name Robert Biale on the labels, shrieked out
"Bob Biale! He's a chicken farmer!!!" She used to live in the Napa
Valley and used to purchase eggs from the Biale ranch.
- Production of wine is pretty
limited. Chickens, too. They have a number of old vineyards and yet they make
a more gentle style of Zinfandel. The wines tend to have ripe fruit notes and a bit
of wood, but are not strongly oaked. Biale has also been fortunate to be able to
purchase Zinfandel from the Louis Martini "Monte Rosso" property in the
Sonoma Valley (that's nice for Biale, but isn't it a shame that a winery sells old vine
fruit because it's worth more as a "raw material" than as a finished wine by
Martini!).
We found the current line-up of 2009s to be of interest. (We also
liked 2006 and 2007 in general.)
The 2008 Monte Rosso is a splendid example of wine from what should be
considered a "grand cru" site for Zinfandel. It has ripe
fruit, typical of Biale's wines, but not so over-the-top that the 'terroir'
is lost.
The 2009 Black Chicken Zin is deep and nicely spicy. It's a wine
showing notes of blackberries and dark cherries...Fruity and I find a nice
shading of oak in the wine.
There's a wine from the Varozza vineyard...a St. Helena site near York Creek
and not far from the Napa River. The vineyard is a mix of older and
younger vineyards and Biale does a nice job of highlighting some of the
black fruit notes of Zinfandel without it going over the top...though it
still is a big, robust red.
Biale has long admired the fruit from the Moore Vineyard in
Coombsville. The Turley winery had been purchasing and vinifying those
grapes, but a friend of Biale's (who's also a winemaker) married into the
Moore clan and now there's a single vineyard R.W. Moore Vineyard Zinfandel
in the line-up. The 2009 is the first vintage...it's got a bit of dark
fruit and a mild spice tone with mild tannins.
- Currently available: 2008 "MONTE ROSSO" Zinfandel
(list $60) SALE $49.99
2009 "BLACK CHICKEN RANCH" Zinfandel (List $46) SALE
$41.99
HALF BOTTLES: BLACK CHICKEN RANCH (List
$28) SALE $25.99
2009 R.W. MOORE VINEYARD ZINFANDEL $45.99
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D-CUBED If your name is Duane
David Dappen, I suppose you had no alternatives but to name your
Zinfandel "D-Cubed".
Dappen started his winemaking career working for Mike Grgich at Grgich-Hills
before leaving to work with Dr. Jerry Seps at Storybook Mountain in
Calistoga. From there he went on to work for the Rombauer family
winery. He's making his current wines at the Brown Family winery in
Chiles Valley (Napa).
Under his own label he
makes a rather peppery Howell Mountain-grown Zinfandel. We've
been quite happy with most D-Cubed Zins. They tend to be exuberantly
berryish and have a nice bit of spice to them.
From the 2007 vintage we have an excellent 4-vineyard blend. It's
labeled merely as "Napa Valley" Zinfandel and it's from vineyards
in Chiles Valley, Pope Valley, Howell Mountain and St. Helena. It's an exuberantly
fruity wine, with lots of blackberries, black cherries and a hint of
spice. This vintage has no Petite Sirah, as did the 2006. Softer than the Howell Mountain bottling, it's also less
costly, too! We serve this wine at cool cellar temp, putting in the
'fridge about an hour before dinner.
- Currently available: 2007 Napa Valley Zinfandel $25.99
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- NALLE
 Doug Nalle was the winemaker for an old, long-gone Sonoma winery called Balverne.
He went on to be the winemaker at Quivira, turning out some very fine Zinfandels under
that banner. For years now he's been the captain of his own ship, producing Zinfandel from Dry
Creek Valley grown-fruit (his wife's family have been vineyard owners
forever)...
In his early days of making "Nalle" Zinfandel, this was a much
sought-after wine. Anybody who knew anything about Zinfandel had to
have Nalle wine. Today, though, not many people know the name, since
the big, brain-buster style of Zinfandel scores points with the
critics. As a result, Nalle is, today, a bit "under the
radar" of most Zin drinkers, though he still has a very loyal following.
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Zinfandel comes from older vineyards. Some from seriously older vines. About
20% new French oak each year gives just a touch of a sweet spice to his wines.
Years ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited to taste his 2000 vintage out of barrel, back to each
and every vintage to 1990. These wines, for the most part, age quite nicely.
They are not likely to win blind-tastings, as the wines are not the
"in-your-face," high alcohol, high oak, slightly sweet concoctions which seem to
catch the attention of the critics.
Nalle's Zins are, almost always, less than 14% alcohol. These are wines for the
mature wine drinker, rather than the young whippersnappers out there who need a wine which
"rocks."
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 The
2009 is all of 13.6% alcohol...as some of the vineyards are mixed plantings,
there's Petite Sirah, Carignane, Mourvedre and Alicante Bouschet in the mix
with a few bunches of Chasselas for kicks...you'll find nice red and black
fruit notes with a faintly spicy undertone (that's Dry Creek for you!)...
CLICK HERE FOR NALLE ZIN INFO
& PHOTOS- Currently available:
2009 Dry Creek Zinfandel (List $36) SALE
$31.99
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HOMEFIRE
CELLARS
 Homefire
Cellars is the work of Mike Sterling, but since someone else owns the
Sterling name, he's chosen the "Homefire" brand.
Winemaking is somewhat of a hobby for Sterling as his day job is in the
realm of electronic journalism. This fellow has even been nominated
for an Emmy award when he worked for KRON TV. He's currently employed
by KGO-TV here in the Bay Area. We're nominating him for a Zinny
Award, not as prestigious as an Emmy.
Mike makes a few hundred cases a year of really delicious Zinfandel.
His current bottling comes from an old vineyard in Sonoma County's Dry Creek
Valley (best place on the planet for Zin, in our opinion). Sterling
beautifully captures the spice of Dry Creek Zin, producing a wine with some
elegance and exuberance.
Half the fruit is crushed and half starts the fermentation as "whole
berries." Small, open top bins serve as fermentation tanks.
When the fermentation is completed, the wine is gently pressed and
transferred to oak, both French and American oak cooperage being
employed. The total production amounts to something like 20 barrels of
wine (Mike sneaks in one barrel of Petite Sirah with the Zin, giving a bit
of body and spice).
The 2008 vintage is remarkably good...
We like the brambly, raspberryish fruit...it's classic Zinfandel with a mild
spice note. In an era when so many Zins are $20 to $50 a bottle,
Mike's goal, he says, is to "produce exceptional wine at a reasonable
price." At $13.99, we think he deserves a award (Emmy or
otherwise).
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- Currently in stock: 2008 HOMEFIRE CELLARS Dry Creek Valley
ZINFANDEL $13.99
STORYBOOK MOUNTAIN
 Dr.
Jerry Seps was a professor or European history and he and Mrs. Seps had
purchased a "ghost winery" in a remote location up in Calistoga.
The ghosts inhabiting the place were those of the brothers Grimm, but not
the legendary story-tellers. This Grimm family had roots, and still
does, we're told, in German wine. I know there's a Grimm weingut in
the Rheinpfalz, so perhaps the boys emigrated from there back in the late
1800s?
Jerry and Sigrid embarked on their enological adventure in 1976 when they
bought the place and planted Zinfandel, partly at the suggestion of
legendary BV winemaker Andre Tchelistcheff. In those days, Cabernet
Sauvignon was often close in price to Zinfandel, for example. We
fondly recall the first wines from Storybook Mountain...the wines were truly
regal in style. (Andre might have also realized Seps might make better
Cabernet there, so he led him "astray" down the Zinfandel
road. Perhaps.)
Over the years, Seps has continued to produce elegant wines. This,
despite the current fashion of "Zins-on-Steroids."
Jerry has long been passionate about Zinfandel and I know it pained him to
see so many vintners creating huge, mammoth wines with plenty of color, too
much alcohol and tons of tannin. Seps, I suppose being an historian,
was well aware the market for Zinfandel was nearly killed around the early
1980s since winemakers "pushed the envelope" to the point where
many consumers lost interest. What's the point of buying a wine you
cannot drink? He was also aware of many wineries considering pulling
out their Zinfandel in favor of planting more "expensive"
varietals such as Chardonnay and Cabernet.
I'd seen Jerry one day and he was preoccupied with calling a winery owner in
the Valley to urge him to not pull out his Zinfandel vines! Seps realized he
"needed" more wineries making Zinfandel for the variety to
continue to be viable in the market.
Jerry was instrumental in founding the ZAP group, Zinfandel Advocates and
Producers. He got a few producers together with Margaret Smith, who'd
been at Sunset Magazine years ago and then was working on organizing wine
"events." Together they got ZAP off the ground and today the
San Francisco ZAP tasting is pretty much out of control. Zinfandel
sales continue to be strong, thanks to Seps' great efforts.
Though "new" wineries have sprung up over the years and Turley and
Robert Biale garner high numerical scores from various critics, Seps has
retained his elegant, "claret-styled" Zinfandel. If you're
looking for the huge, late-picked, "gobs-o'-fruit" style of
Zinfandel, Storybook Mountain Zin might not be to your taste. It's not
sweet, jammy or "over-the-top"-styled wine. Jerry, after
all, makes wine for "adults" and he makes wine for "wine
drinkers." He is a "living legend" and the hundreds of
new Zinfandel producers around the state owe him a major debt of
gratitude. Major.
The 2006 Napa Zinfandel from the Mayacamas Range was quite good....berryish and spicy with nice
intensity and it's intended for the dinner table rather than having
"gobs o' fruit" and noticeable levels of sugar. The
wine will pair quite handsomely with well-seasoned meats, as it's got a nice
backbone of spice.
The 2007 struck us as even a bit more vibrant and fruity. Berries and
light spice notes...beautifully balanced and drinkable in its youth.
Very fine and complete...it has a great nose, lovely flavors and a nice
finish.
This wine is made for adults, rather than kids, if you know what I mean.
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- Currently in stock:
2007 Napa "Mayacamas Range" Zinfandel $31.99
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