2020 Ridge East Bench Zinfandel

Fresh black cherry, fig, and vanilla on the nose, with notes of mint. Medium to full body with rich raspberry on the palate and well coated tannins. Beautifully balanced with a juicy finish. MB (1/22)

After a plentiful harvest in 2019, the vines set a very small crop in 2020. With fewer grapes on the vine, the zinfandel ripened quickly. All seven parcels of the vineyard were picked in the first week of September. The 2020 East Bench has plentiful fruit typical of the variety and the depth of flavor representative of the Dry Creek Valley. It will be at its best over the next ten years. JO (11/21)

Rains in March and April helped the vines get through the summer.

Fermentation: Natural primary and natural secondary (malolactic) fermentations.
Barrels: 100% air-dried American oak barrels (10% new, 20% one year-old, 20% two years-old, 25% four years-old and 25% five years-old).
Aging: Twelve months in barrel

Hand-harvested; estate-grown organic grapes; destemmed and crushed; fermented on the indigenous yeast, followed by a full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur for this wine (50 ppm at crush, 74 ppm during aging); pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.