only 97 cases bottled
sold out
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This year is marked as an outstanding year for wine grape growing, and for
being the first year of a three year drought on the central coast of
California. 2012 was a year that winemakers dream about, with nearly perfect
growing weather, textbook timing, and stunning fruit that produced, inthe Toucan Vineyard, a full crop of well balanced and age-worthy wines.the Toucan Vineyard, a full crop of well balanced and age-worthy wines.We completed pruning by mid-February and saw our first leafs on April 11sttand bud-break throughout April. We suffered no frost damage, and less
extreme weather in the form of wind or excessively hot days. My notes refer
to the very dry conditions, but compared to the 2 years that followed,
rainfall was fair, but still below average. Vine growth was normal and
fruit-set was picture perfect..
After selective fruit thinning and green growth removal, on August 4th
we netted the vineyard as we began to see transformation in color. Harvest
began October 3rd for the Estate Petite Sirah and September 22nd
for our Estate Zinfandel fruit, and on October 28th we picked our
final fruit of the season.
We selected 4 of the 10 barrels of Estate Zinfandel we produced to represent
our first Estate Zinfandel release since the 2009 vintage. We added 10%
Estate Petite Sirah and the resulting blend spent 20 months in 50% new and
50% one year old French oak barrels. On June 24th of 2014, we
hand-bottled 97 cases, including a few larger format bottles.
We used some of the remaining barrels of our amazing Estate Zinfandel as the
backbone for our 2012 Reserve Cuvee, a blend that includes our Estate
Zinfandel, Estate Petite Sirah, and old vine Carignane.
Our 2012
Estate Zinfandel is a perfect example of the fruit our vineyard is capable
of producing. A complex wine with brighter cherry-raspberry initially, and
followed by a riper profile of rich berry and seductive oak. Balanced and
build to last, like our 2005 and 2007, this wine is food ready and will
develop for many years in the bottle. Drink 2015 - 2022