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Wine Details
Price:
$45.00 per bottle
Description:
Planted over a hundred years ago by Felice Pagani, the famous Pagani vineyard produces as little as one or two tons per acre on intensely flavored clusters that ripen at unusually high sugar levels. The occasional Petite Sirah and Alicante Bouschet vines dotted among the Zinfandel contribute to a deep purple blend rich with jammy fruit. For the 2000 vintage, we hand harvested the grapes in October and crushed them into stainless steel tanks. Fermented over twelve to eighteen days, the wine was then racked into new American oak barrels and aged for twelve to fifteen months. Bottled without fining or filtration, it was held another four to eight months before release. This is a bold wine with dark hints of licorice, chocolate, pepper, and black plum.
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Varietal Definition
Zinfandel:
Zinfandel is a variety of red grape planted in over 10 percent of California wine vineyards. DNA fingerprinting revealed that it is genetically equivalent to the Croatian grape Crljenak Kaštelanski, and also the Primitivo variety traditionally grown in the 'heel' of Italy. It is typically made into a robust red wine. Its taste depends on the ripeness of the grapes from which it is made. Red berry fruits like raspberry predominate in wines from cooler areas such as the Napa Valley, whereas blackberry, anise and pepper notes are more common in wines made in warmer areas such as Sonoma County. Many Zinfandels come from head pruned ‘Old Vines’. ‘Old Vine’ is generally understood to mean a vine that is more than 50 years old and that produces less than three tons per acre. ‘Head Pruning’ is an old European style of pruning that trains the vine into the shape of a goblet. It requires no wires or other complex trellis systems. Head pruning spreads the fruit uniformly along the vine and allows light penetration.In the USA a semi-sweet Rosé (blush-style) wine called ‘White Zinfandel’ has achieved widespread popularity. In fact, this popularity has so outstripped all other forms that many fans think there is actually a grape called “White Zinfandel” (there isn’t)!
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Alicante Bouschet:
Minor grape originating from a 19th century cross using the Aramon and ancient Teinturier native vine, resulting in a hybrid varietal. This in turn was crossed with the Grenache to give the named grape. Widely grown in France, California and Spain. In the latter country it is known as Garnacha Tintorera. In the cool Champagne region of France it is the main grape used to make the sweet "vin mousseux" - (sparkling wine). Often known as "Alicante" for short. Elsewhere the canned juice is used by many amateur winemakers for fermenting homemade wines.
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Petite Sirah:
Petite Sirah is the same as the French variety known as Durif, a cross of Peloursin, with the true Syrah. A French nurseryman, Dr. François Durif, propagated the grape trying for resistance to powdery mildew and named it after himself, in the 1870s. Petite Sirah has long been an important blending grape, prized primarily for its deep color and fairly intense tannin. It is the variety most often chosen to blend into Zinfandel for added color, complexity, body, and to tone down the tendency of Zins toward "jammy" fruit.
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