WINES

2009 Zinfandel Les E'nfant Terrible, Heart Arrow Ranch This is the first year that we’ve made Zinfandel from this beautiful organic- and biodynamically-grown vineyard up in the rolling hills of Mendocino county, about 15 miles north of the town of Ukiah. The vineyard uses no herbicides or pesticides in the vineyard at all, preferring to use cover crops and soil amendments that help sustain and protect the vines. The vineyard management techniques foster a distinctive character—the site-specific terroir of the vineyard—that make the wine unique in aroma, flavor, and structure from our other Zinfandels made at Dashe Cellars.

Info & Tasting Notes:	2009
Press:	2009
Purchase:	2009

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2009 Les Enfants Terribles Zinfandel

Heart Arrow Vineyard (Biodynamically-grown)

Mendocino County


History
Because of the way the grapes are grown, and because of the techniques we use to make this wine—fermented with the native yeasts on the grapes; aged in older French oak barrels; unfined and unfiltered; and bottled with low SO2 levels—we felt that it deserved to be labeled with our other wines in the Les Enfants Terribles (the “Wild Children”) series, which are made in a more Old World style.  The resulting purity of flavor, velvety texture, and complex midpalette is a break from the fruit-forward style of many Californian wines—it initially seems lighter in color and structure than a typical California Zinfandel, but quickly shows itself to be extraordinarily complex and pleasing both in aroma and on the palate.


Production
We picked these grapes relatively late, in early October 2009.  The grapes were picked early in the AM to keep the grapes very cold, and then trucked in ˝ ton picking bins to the winery.  As with all of our wines, the fermentation was conducted using the native yeasts found naturally growing on the grapes, which helps with maintaining a unique and distinctive vineyard character.   The fermentation started slowly, and then picked up speed and heat, as is typical with native yeast fermentations. Since we had picked the grapes at a relatively low sugar level, the resulting wine ended up at an alcohol level of 13.6%, significantly lower than many other zinfandels from California.

At dryness, we gently pressed the wine to prevent any pickup of harsh tannins, and racked the wine to older “neutral” French oak barrels. By using older barrels we intentionally kept this wine away from heavy oak influences, and enhanced the lovely fruit character of the wine.

We were extremely pleased with the end result: a wine of great depth and purity of flavor, showing how exceptionally good a zinfandel can be when harvested from the correct site, with cooler climates, which highlights the lovely sweet zinfandel fruit without overwhelming it with flavors of oak or alcohol.  We love this wine its delicacy and complexity.


Production Notes
Varietals:          100% Zinfandel

Appellation:     Mendocino County

Alcohol:           13.6% by vol.

Time in oak:     5 months in older French barrels

Production:      190 cases, 750mL

Release date:    June 1, 2010

Sugg. retail price: $24.00 bottle, 750mL

Optimum time for consumption: 2010-14


Tasting Notes
Color :       Red-purple, lighter in color than typical zinfandel         

Aroma:      Beautiful strawberry-raspberry fruit mixed with mineral, earthy, toasty aromas.          

Taste:         Pure black raspberry and strawberry entry, earthy and mineral, great velvety texture on midpalette, quite dry with a long, complex fruit finish.