2023 divergent vine
Fair Play - El Dorado Co. Zinfandel
Finally a Pure Expression of Zinfandel
Tasting Notes
Vibrant aromas of raspberry and soft white pepper lead into a silky mouthful highlighted by juicy flavors of dark cherry, wild berries, and Santa Rosa plump. This low-alcohol style Zinfandel will change your mind about what California Zinfandel is and can be; the wine showcases an intensity and verve that only comes from picking the fruit earlier combined with our extremely low-intervention, old world-driven wine making techniques. While the wine is great at cellar temperature, we like to serve it with the slightest chill. Great drinking on its own, but great with BBQ chicken, smoked spare ribs, beef chili, and meat-driven spicy Asian dishes.
Winemaking
Harvest: About 50% of the grapes were put into large T-bins whole cluster, the remaining 50% were de-stemmed on top, creating a partial carbonic fermentation environment. Grapes were foot stomped daily until native ferment started breaking down the grapes enough to do daily punch downs.
Aging: 10 months in old French Oak barrels
Yeast: Indigenous
ABV: 12.5%
Bottled without fining or filtration. 15ppm SO2 at bottling
Production: 170 cases
Winemaker Notes
Fair Play AVA
The Fair Play American Viticultural Area (AVA) is located in Southern El Dorado County with average plantings at 2,200’ elevation, making it the second highest average plantings in all of California. The region is notable for the decomposed granitic soils, which allow the fruit extra hang time without compromising structural components. Our Zinfandel comes from a vineyard which sits in a cool pocket about 2,100’ elevation, allowing for even more hang time and phenolic development.
Harvest: October 17, 2023
Vintage
The 2023 vintage was marked by a long, cool growing season, which allowed our fruit to hang and slowly develop phenolic ripeness, or harmony of the sugars with the acids in the grapes. A few late summer rains set the grape development back a few times, leading to even more extended hang time in what could amount to be one of the best vintages of my lifetime..
Varietal
Zinfandel was once thought to be native to California, but was recently discovered to be the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski (good luck pronouncing that). Regardless of origin, the grape is known for making fruit-forward, versatile wines great for sipping as well as pairing with a number of foods. Zinfandel is also genetically identical to Primitivo, although the resulting wines tastes vastly different from one another, largely due to the difference in size of the berries.