Nose
The Zinfandel has a brambly spicy nose of all sorts of fresh berries: raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, marionberries — you name it, a cornucopia of fresh fruit.
Palate
The wine has soft tannins, but very bright acidity, zesty and clean — not the heavy Zinfandel one could expect — this one is zingy and fresh, finishing with a thread of loamy soil as a reminder that this is a serious wine.
Growing Conditions
Our Zinfandel is due to a combination of two factors: a fascination with the long-lived vines and a friendship that made the wine possible. The Limerick Lane Vineyard in the Russian River Valley is a classic cooler-climate Zinfandel location, with vines dating back as far as 1910. Steve’s friend Jake Bilbro purchased the vineyard in 2008, and worked with Steve to plant a new hillside with Zinfandel. Steve has continued to work with Jake on the vineyard every step of the way. In 2013 we decided that it was time for Matthiasson to make a wine from the vineyard Steve worked so hard to establish.
The Limerick Lane Vineyard is a mile south of Healdsburg, receiving the morning fog and afternoon sea breezes of the Russian River Valley, but with shallow hillside soils that restrain the vigor of the vines and enhance ripening. The vineyard is known for intense acidity and brambly flavors that create some of the most age-worthy Zinfandels in California.
Winemaking
The wine is 95% Zinfandel co-fermented with 5% Petite sirah. The fermentation was 50% whole cluster and 50% destemmed and crushed, fermented in an open top tank, and received two manual punch downs per day.
Aging
We pressed after 14 days on the skins and aged the wine in neutral Burgundy barrels for 10 months.
