The 2015 Zinfandel harvest was unusually early at Berry Vineyards in 2015. The vines are in their sixties and reacting to difficult spring weather, they set a very modest crop. In fact, the vines produced so little fruit that they roared their crop into ripeness a full two weeks earlier than the preceding vintages. Ed Berry harvested and delivered his first load of Zinfandel before Navarro had completed our Gewürztraminer harvest, which floored us as Gewürztraminer is recognized as a very early ripener and Zinfandel is considered a very late ripener! One of the realities of the fruit ripening at breakneck speed is that the hang-time is shorter, thus more of the grape's natural acidity is retained. Not only is this a deeply flavored wine, but with such exceptional acidity, we expect it to age gracefully for a decade or perhaps more. The grapes from Ed's first Zin picking were fermented in three open-top fermentors and the must was punched down by hand twice daily to keep the tannins soft.

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