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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. As a result, the "basic" Seghesio
Zinfandel is a gem for value-conscious consumers. This is sale-tagged at just
$15.99. If you haven't tasted the 2006 vintage, stop by for a bottle of this versatile (food-wise) Zinfandel. The
fruit comes from the Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys. It is deep in
color and packed with raspberry-like fruit and spice. It's intended
for immediate consumption, so don't hide it away in the cellar for
dust-collecting. It's a bit more potent than previous vintages,
but served at cool cellar temp, this is a winner.
The 2004 Home Ranch bottling comes from a vineyard planted in 1895.
This is located in the rather warm Alexander Valley, so the fruit ripens to
full maturity and the wine tends to be big and not terribly acidic.
The fruit was picked rather early in terms of the calendar, but late in
terms of maturity...they harvested this during the third week of August at a
high level of sugar. Lots of dark fruit notes and some oak...probably
best now, in its youth.
- Currently available:
2006 Sonoma County Zinfandel (List $20)
SALE $15.99
2005 Sonoma Zin 375ml bottles $10.99
2004 Home Ranch $35.99
- FOPPIANO
 The Foppiano
family may have been the first settlers in Sonoma, arriving from Italy in
boats made of spaghetti from their native Italy.
The family originated in Genoa, so they had pesto in their veins instead of
blood. Today, the new generation of Foppianos has Petite Sirah
in their circulatory systems.
King Foppiano The First planted grapes and made some wine. With good
results. People didn't have Robert Parker to tell them what they liked
in those days. Heck, they were lucky to having a horse and
buggy! But folks in North Beach (San Francisco) knew a good wine when
they tasted it and the best tables in town were graced with wine from the
sunny Foppiano vineyards.
Prohibition changed the wine industry and Foppiano continued to grow grapes
and made a "little" wine for personal consumption. A family
was allowed to make 200 gallons of "homemade" wine.
Apparently they were big drinkers, as the revenuers came by in 1926 and
found 100,000 gallons of red wine in the tanks on the old Foppiano
homestead. The federales were delighted to make a
"bust" and they bled off the tanks into the local creek.
Legend has it that the neighbors came from miles around with cups and jugs
as the river "ran" red!
The Foppianos survived Prohibition, however, and were a major force in the
1940s and 1950s.
I remember when our shop had some Foppiano jug wines and a highly-regarded
"1964 Burgundy" from Foppiano. This was a legendary wine for
connoisseurs, apparently.
Over the years, the world has turned and things have changed. But
changes have come more slowly at the azienda Foppiano.
Apparently electricity and indoor plumbing are recent innovations.
We're pleased to report that gravity has long been in use there, however.
Former Hillsborough resident Bill Regan is the winemaker. He's been
with Foppiano for years.
The wines were somewhat inconsistent for some reason. We're pleased to
note, however, that the past few years have seen a marked improvement.
Prices, thankfully, remain "old time."
We were really thrilled with their 2000 Dry Creek Zinfandel and the 2001 is
even more of a monster! The wine displays a lovely berry-like fruit of
the Zinfandel, enhanced with a really intriguing brown spice quality which
seems to be the current Foppiano "signature." We're big
fans, especially since the price is so sensible. It is delicious now
and probably will remain in good condition for several more years.
Grilled, roasted or braised meats will be a perfect accompaniment to this
wine. We also enjoy this with lots of Italian-styled foods, too.
- Currently in stock: 2002 Dry Creek Zinfandel (list $15) SALE
$12.99 Sold Out
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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.
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".
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.
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...
The 2005 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.
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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 2006,
medium-bodied and ready to drink now. And it's affordable.
The 2006 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).
Ridge 2006 Paso Robles is one of the best examples of that Central
Coast Zins we can remember. Part of the success of the wine is the
fact that the grapes were harvested in 'ripe', rather than 'over-ripe'
condition. It's a big fruit bomb, but not over-the-top.
- Currently available:
2006 Paso Robles Zin (List $30) SALE $27.99
2005 Lytton Springs Zin, etc. SALE $29.99
2006 "Three Valleys" Zin (List $20)
SALE $17.99
- 2006 Geyserville 750ml (List $35) SALE
$29.99
2003 Geyserville 750ml $34.99
2005 Lytton Springs Magnum (List $70) SALE $62.99
2006 Geyserville Magnum (List $78) SALE
$69.99
3 Liter bottles of Geyserville and Lytton
Springs are usually in stock, as well.
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- 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 2005 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 really blossoms if you can give it an hour in a
decanter or carafe. Tops!
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- Currently in stock: 2005 PEDRONCELLI Dry Creek "Mother
Clone" ZINFANDEL $12.99
- RUNQUIST
 Jeff
Runquist was affiliated with the Monteviña Winery in Amador County when the place was run
by Cary Gott and was a serious producer of California Zinfandels. He left Amador
for the J. Lohr winery in San Jose and today makes his wines out in the
Central Valley.
Despite being out of the neighborhood, Runquist returned to Amador and buys Zinfandel
from a vineyard which must have been planted shortly before 1900. There are many
old vineyards in Amador and it was just about the only place where planting increased
during Prohibition!
The Massoni vineyard wine is exceptional. Runquist avoids
the excessively jammy and over-ripe qualities found in many wines from this warm
region. Runquist has made consistently fine Zins for as long as we've
known him. I think 1995 was our first vintage.
Now we've got the 2005 in the shop, a wine that to us seems to show more
American oak than earlier vintages. The wine is less jammy than the
previous vintage. The fruit was picked rather early by Amador
standards, coming in around mid-September. The potential alcohol was
more than 16%, so Jeff used technology to reduce the alcohol to something
sensible. It's still strong, but it's not off-the-charts. I did
not ask my usual goofy question of "Who's the winemaker here, Jim Beam
or Jack Daniels?" Had Runquist bottled a hugely alcoholic wine, I
might have posed this question. Lovely wine.
- Currently in stock: Runquist 2005 Amador Zinfandel "Massoni
Ranch" $19.99.
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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.
One 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.
The second 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. We can order these for you.-
- Currently in stock:
2004 "Wild Thing" Zin $26.99
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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!).
Recent vintages have been big, along the lines of Turley's Zins. We
have found the wines to be perhaps more charming when they are young.
They tend to be of modest acidity.
The 2003 Aldo's is a typically big Biale Zin. It's one of those
gobs-of-fruit Zinfandels which will stain your glass as well as your
teeth. Don't wear light colored clothing when drinking this...spills
happen! We suggest serving it at cool cellar temp, as this seems to
temper the alcohol on the nose. It's massive, showing blackberries, a
bit of jam, raspberries and some spice notes.
The 2003 "Grande" Zinfandel is indeed "grande."
Very big, deep and pretty typical of the immense size of Biale's Zins.
It is said to come from the Rossi Vineyard.
We like the blackberry and boysenberry fruit of this wine. There's
also a note of spice on the nose and palate.
- Currently available: 2003 "Aldo's" Zinfandel
$39.99 (limited)
2003 "Grande" Zinfandel (list $40) Sale $35.99
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- RAVENSWOOD
 Ravenswood has established itself as a source of some big, rich, pedal-to-the-metal
Zinfandels. Though they bottle a slug of "Vintner's Blend" wines, a modest
quality line-up, the single vineyard Zinfandels are what attract the most attention to the
Ravenswood lineup.
Winemaker Joel Peterson started his Ravenswood adventure
back in the "old days", the first vintage being 1976! He was one of the
first in today's modern era to play with indigenous yeast fermentations. Long skin
contact has been a part of the Ravenswood "recipe", along with French oak
(though it's been impossible to accuse these wines of being "oaky").
I
think the single vineyard wines have grown a bit more refined over the past few years and
are big, brawny, somewhat old-style (rustic?) Zinfandels. Like Robert Biale,
Ravenswood has recently gotten some fruit from Louis Martini's Monte Rosso vineyard in the
Sonoma Valley, though now that Gallo owns Louis Martini, they're not selling
fruit to Ravenswood.
I find most of the wines to be a bit "flat" tasting. They
tend to be big, brawny and ripe. A recent blind-tasting showed they're
making powerful, potent wines. The two we included in the tasting were
of "red table wine" caliber, lacking Zinfandel character.
The wines were tannic and hot tasting.
Constellation Brands owns Franciscan, Estancia and Mount Veeder
wineries, as well as a number of less noteworthy alcoholic
beverages. So far, founder Joel Peterson is still "the
man" here and the wines have remained unchanged.
We simply have not found wines which we like well enough to bring in to the
shop and recommend, but we'll gladly order their wines for you.
- Currently available: By Special Order
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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 2004 vintage we have an excellent 3-vineyard blend. It's
labeled merely as "Napa Valley" Zinfandel and it's from vineyards
in Chiles Valley, Pope Valley and St. Helena. It's an exuberantly
fruity wine, with lots of blackberries, black cherries and a hint of
spice. 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: 2004 Napa Valley Zinfandel $24.99
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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. Now he's the captain of his own ship, producing Zinfandel from Dry
Creek Valley grown-fruit.
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 has a very loyal following.
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.
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."
CLICK HERE FOR NALLE ZIN INFO
& PHOTOS- Currently available:
2004 Dry Creek Zinfandel $26.99
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HOMEFIRE
CELLARS
 A couple named
"Sterling" owns this new label and so, of course, they can't use
their family name as a wine brand unless they're interested in being sued.
They chose the name Homefire and have made a tiny quantity of Sonoma County
Zinfandel. The grapes come from the Russian River Valley and
Alexander Valley . It's a wonderfully berryish, easy-to-drink wine,
much like Mike's first release.
Another nice feature, other than good aromas and terrific Zin, berry and
spice flavors, is the reasonable price tag. If you know of a Zinfandel
with better pedigree and high quality for twelve bucks (or less), would you
kind pass along your suggestion?
We don't expect
this will be around for very long at $11.99 as Mike made less than 300
cases.
- Currently in stock: 2005 Sonoma Zinfandel $11.99
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 2005 Napa Zinfandel from the Mayacamas Range is 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.
This wine is made for adults, rather than kids, if you know what I mean.
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- Currently in stock:
2005 Napa "Mayacamas Range" Zinfandel $27.99
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