 |
2007 Zinfandel L'Enfant Terrible
This is a wine unlike any other that Dashe Cellars has ever produced. Complex, lower in alcohol, unfined and unfiltered, fermented using native yeasts found on the grapes, and organically grown. It’s a wine made in a style that we love—totally drinkable, yet with a complexity that grows on you the more you sip. It really tastes more like a wine made from one of the great regions in the Beaujolais region of France than wine made in California.
|
Download/Print Tasting Note
[ 27.0 KB ]
2007 Zinfandel “L’Enfant Terrible” McFadden Farms Organically-Grown, Potter Valley
History
The vineyard is in a cooler wine region—the mountains of Potter Valley, with its warm days and quite cool nights. We call it “L’Enfant Terrible”—the rebel child—both because it tastes unlike anything you’re likely to find in California, and because this Zinfandel vineyard is surrounded by white grape vines—Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc—so it appears like a misfit within this cooler growing region.
Production
Totally natural from start to finish. The grapes started as organically grown, with almost no additions to the vineyard. It was fermented using native yeasts found naturally growing on the grapes, in a stainless steel tank. It is unfiltered and unfined, to keep the fruit as pure and distinctive as possible, reflecting the character of the vineyard.
We intentionally kept this wine away from heavy oak influences. It was aged in a huge oak cask—900 gallons in a single barrel—to keep the fresh fruit while still possessing a “barrel-aged” character.
Production Notes
Varietals: 100% Zinfandel (even though it tastes like Gamay!)
Appellation: Potter Valley, Mendocino County
Alcohol: 13.8% by vol.
Time in oak: 6 months
Oak: French; 900 gallon cask
Production: 540 cases, 750mL
Release date: July 15, 2008
Sugg. retail price: $24.00 bottle, 750mL
Optimum time for consumption: 2008-2012
Tasting Notes
Color : Beautiful ruby red
Aroma: Pure black raspberry with strawberry and black cherry highlights, mineral and earth.
Taste: Entry is of fresh red fruit, incredible in its purity and freshness. Spicy, complex, full of mineral and earthy notes. Initial impression of austerity gives way to complex flavors of black cherry, granite, and spice. Clean, lingering fresh fruit finish.
