Winemaker's Notes
Serious Pinot Noir and red Burgundy fans seem to appreciate this style of Zinfandel more than they do the ‘super-ripe’ style currently in fashion. The texture and complexity of our wines from Dad’s vineyard are appealing and versatile both in youth as well as with maturity. At bottling this February, the 2001 vintage seemed very much like the 1999 vintage with densely-packed dark fruit. But I think this wine has even greater promise for the future. For those new to our wines, I would suggest consuming bottles of the generous 2000 OMV (some is still available) while allowing this profound 2001 to blossom. Those of you with past vintages in the cellar can enjoy the developing wines all the way back to 1991 (our first) during this time. Our Old & Mature Zinfandels age and develop consistently well and really do reward patience (or forgetfulness). This wine is a perfect example of this.
Judi Scherrer –
Decanter – December 2003
A nose of candied spices and subtle fruit leads to a concentrated, pure, focused middle of cherries, blackberry and black currant, with notes of toffee, anise and allspice in the long finish. 4 Stars. Jeff Cox
Judi Scherrer –
International Wine Cellar – February 2004
Dark red. Pungent aromas of red berries and clove. Juicy and bright but still a bit youthfully folded in on itself. Slightly pinched flavors of fresh cherry and red berries. Finished with firm acids and fine tannins but turned increasingly tart with aeration. Still, this was sweeter and fleshier than the 2000 version tasted alongside it. Stephen Tanzer