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 11^sttand 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 4^th we netted the vineyard as we began to see transformation in color. Harvest began October 3^rd for the Estate Petite Sirah and September 22^nd for our Estate Zinfandel fruit, and on October 28^th 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 24^th 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