2013 Carmichael Zinfandel

Medium ruby color. Appealing bramble fruit nose, exotic oak spice, vibrant. Fresh cherry and raspberry fruit entry, creamy textured tannins, racy, medium-long finish. EB (10/16)

Despite the drought, these vines set a large crop. This slowed ripening, and delayed harvest to mid-October. Juice was circulated twice daily during a seven-day fermentation, resulting in excellent color and balanced tannins. When uninoculated malolactic finished, the selected parcels were combined and moved to American oak for aging. Quarterly racking maintained freshness, and clarified the wine naturally. This appealing zinfandel can be enjoyed now, but will continue to develop over the next five to six years.

Originally a part of the Rancho Sotoyomi Spanish land grant, these one hundred acres were purchased in the mid-1800s by Archibald Carmichael. Ridge began farming the upper half of the ranch in 2000. The soils differ considerably between the upper and lower blocks. The Carmichael comes principally from the west side of the abandoned right of way of the old Northwestern Pacific railroad where soils transition from gravel to clay. This is our ninth release from the ranch.

Rainfall: 24.5 -30 inches (below average)
Bloom: Mid-May
Weather: Warm spring and early summer, followed by cooler weather that slowed ripening.

Harvest Dates: 7- 14 October
Grapes: Average brix 24.4
Fermentation: Seven day fermentation in small fermentors; natural primary and secondary fermentation.
Barrels: 100% air-dried american oak: (17% new, 20% one year old and 63% four years old). Aging 17 months in barrel

All Estate grown grapes, hand harvested; destemmed and crushed; fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; 1.2 g/L tartaric acid added; minimum effective sulfur for this wine (35 ppm at crush, 148 ppm over the course of aging), pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

Average Rating: 90.3

No. of Tasting Notes: 64

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