• 2022 ZinfandelNew!
    Old Vine Cuvée
    Mendocino
    • (750 ml) $29.00
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Longevity Recent Press

Most modern vineyards are typically replanted every 40 years. Our oldest estate vineyard is currently 34 years old and will likely be replaced in the next six or seven years due to a decrease in production. As vines get older, they produce a diminished crop. Declining production can also be attributed to dead or weak vines, as well as missing positions due to disease. It puzzled us why we replant at 40 years when the vines producing this wine are up to 90 years old. These older vines are always trained in the goblet style, and we recently realized that pruning methods could affect their lifespan. We found a book, Guyot Methodology by Marco Simonit, which outlines a pruning technique that might extend vine life. This method involves avoiding large pruning cuts once the trunk is established and focusing on removing one- or two-year-old wood, just as one would prune a goblet-trained vine.

A rookie crush employee took a Zinfandel bath. He forgot to hook up a hose before opening the valve on a tank of fermenting Zinfandel. [below]

Simonit's book on a variant of Guyot grapevine pruning. [above]


Large cuts are more prone to disease and can disrupt sap flow. Over the past two seasons, we've trained our crew to avoid large cuts, and we'll see the impact on our vines in another 30 or 40 years. This year's bottling comes from Al Tollini's vineyard, with one block planted by his grandfather in 1932 and two blocks planted by his father in 1948. After fermentation, the wine was aged in French oak barrels, with 15% new oak. Cheers to long-lived vines and a delicious wine tasting of wild blackberry, plum and forest floor! Gold Medal winner. 94 points.


[above] Oops! Fermenting grape juice comes out quickly when a four-inch valve is open for a few seconds

Specifications
  • Harvested: Sept. 17 to Oct. 6, 2022
  • Sugars at harvest: 26.5° Brix
  • Bottled: Aug. 14, 2023
  • Cases produced: 1,084
  • Alcohol: 14.4%
  • Titratable acidity: 5.7 g/L
  • pH: 3.78