Tasting Notes

The wine is bright and lively with concentrated “Zini” aromas. The nose is of dark cherry, blueberry, and plums and a touch of the typical raisins aromas. There is a specific secondary spicy aroma resembling wild berries and flowers which is characteristic of Ponzo Vineyard.

Ponzo Vineyard

Ponzo Vineyard is located just south of Healdsburg between Old Redwood Highway and the Russian River. The vineyard was planted in the early 1920’s with a couple of old blocks planted even earlier, and it is predominately Zin with some interplanted Petite Sirah and Carignane grapes.

2015 Vintage

The 2015 Harvest began with one of the earliest bud breaks in history. Other than that the growing conditions were just about perfect with normal to slightly below-normal yields. The best thing about the early harvest was that the malolactic fermentations finished quickly due to the warm weather.

Winemaking

The grapes were harvested early in the morning of September 8th, 2015. The fruit was handled in the gentlest way possible, hand sorted and fermented in small open-top fermenters with a minimum of three hand punch-downs per day. As usual, the most effort was in extracting as much of the beautiful Zin aromas without the harsh tannins. The malolactic fermentation was done in barrels; aging was done all in one-year-old French and other European oak barrels for about 16 months.