2021 Buchignani Zinfandel

Elegant nose of blueberry, raspberry, plum and anise. Dark chocolate, sarsaparilla, cola, plum and black tea meet exquisite structure and well-integrated tannins on the palate. SR (1/23)

Another dry winter limited vigor in the 80-year-old vines on the Buchignani Ranch. Late summer heat created stress for the dry farmed vines, forcing us to pick non-stop from August 28th to September 2nd to avoid over ripening. A block of carignane on the ranch was included to bring verve to the spicy, generous zinfandel fruit. Enjoyable now, it will be at its best over the next five or six years. SR (1/23)

This wine comes from a small planting of old-vine zinfandel on the Buchignani Ranch on Dutcher Creek Road in the hills north of Dry Creek Valley (carignane planted on the rest of the ranch provides a separate ATP selection). The zinfandel block, approximately five acres in size, was planted in the 1940s and ’50s on a rocky knoll overlooking the family home.

Rainfall: 14 inches (below normal)
Bloom: Early May
Weather: A dry winter and spring stressed the vines, limiting yields and concentrating flavors.

Harvest Dates: 28 August – 2 September
Grapes: Average Brix 25.4˚
TA: 5.78 g/L
pH: 3.84
Fermentation: Grapes fermented on the naturally occurring yeasts. Full malolactic carried out without inoculation.
Barrels: 100% air-dried American oak barrels (7% new, 18% three years old, 11% four years old, and 64% five-plus years old).
Aging: Fourteen months in barrel

Hand-harvested, sustainably farmed grapes, destemmed and crushed, fermented on the indigenous yeast, followed by a full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur for this wine (35 ppm at crush, 130 ppm during aging); pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

See all food pairing recipes we have created specifically for this wine.