ZAP Flights! 2015 presented with support from The Historic Vineyard Society

On January 30, The Zinfandel Experience presented their Flights seminar with support from the Historic Vineyard Society. The seminar was presented as a series of 3 flights of 5 wines each, all Zinfandel and field blends, each flight concentrating on a specific California AVA. Each wine was presented with a speech from the winemaker, followed by a question-and-answer session. Joel Peterson of Ravenswood moderated the panel.

The first flight presented Zinfandel from Contra Costa County, the second flight Amador County, and the third Dry Creek Valley. In each flight, wines were tasted in order from lower to higher ABV.

• 2012 Rosenblum Cellars Zinfandel Reserve Carla's Vineyard

  USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker John Kane.
  
  Color is medium ruby. Nose of red fruit and iron. Not overtly oaky but gives the impression that this was freshly pulled from a barrel. Palate is savory, more black pepper and roasted herbs. Finish is a little hot but this could dissipate with time. 14.5% ABV.
  
  John Kane says this is the most claret-like of the Rosenblum Zins, and I would agree. None of the jamminess that turned me off of them in the early 2000's. This is a good effort and #2/5 of the flight for me.

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• 2012 Precedent Zinfandel Evangelho Vineyard

  USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Nathan Kandler.
  
  Color is a medium-light ruby. Lovely nose is high-toned with cranberry and floral notes. Palate is elegant with strong acidity, but plenty of cherry/cranberry, with iron and dark chocolate in the mid-palate. Slight hint of oak on the finish but it's pretty well integrated. 14.8% ABV. According to Nathan Kandler the wine was raised in 100% old French Oak barrels previously used for Chardonnay.
  
  This may be a Pinot maker's Zin, but it's got tons of energy and is very light on its feet, great representation of Contra Costa, and wine of the flight by a mile.

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• 2012 Cline Cellars Zinfandel Big Break Vineyard

  USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Charlie Tsegeletos. This was an interesting opportunity to taste Charlie's work at Cline next to Matt Cline's Three Wine Co. Matt left Cline and Charlie took over around 2002, which roughly coincides with the time I started losing interest in Cline.
  
  Color is medium/light ruby. Candied dark fruit on the nose, smells sweet and heavy. Palate is soft and round, raspberry/blackberry palate with little acidic lift. Some oak and some heat apparent on the finish. 15.0% ABV. According to Charlie Tsegeletos, the wine is a native yeast fermentation with no enzymes added, pressed off the skins slightly sweet, and bottled with no fining and no filtration, seeing all French Oak 35% new.
  
  With the slight sweetness, low acidity, and apparent oak, this wine seemed to speak less of Contra Costa and more to a flavor profile Cline is trying to hit, which I think is more mass-market and less wine-geek appeal. It's a perfectly tasty wine, but at $29.99 retail I think there is a lot of generic zin at lower price points that would compete. Just the same, I put this at #3/5 on the flight.

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• 2012 Three Wine Company Zinfandel Live Oak

  USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Matt Cline. I was interested to taste Matt's wine against his former winery Cline, since his leaving around 2001 roughly coincides with my losing interest in Cline.
  
  Color is a medium/light ruby. Nose is boozy, with eucalyptus, black pepper, and loads of vanilla. Palate brings the vanilla, almost cream soda, plus a little funkiness like brie rind. Finish has slight black cherry and heat. 15.3% Mix of American and French oak, 30% new.
  
  This one was weird start to finish, maybe the funk blows off but American oak did this one in. Strange enough I asked the person next to me what he thought, and vanilla/oak was his answer. Maybe it integrates with time. #4/5 on the Contra Costa flight.

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• 2012 Rock Wall Wine Co. Zinfandel Jesse's Vineyard

  USA, California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Shauna Rosenblum.
  
  A medium ruby color, the nose hits you like a glass of ruby port, jammy fruits and booze. Palate was port-like, hot and sweet, some herbal notes bring complexity, but this would have been right at home in a flight of dessert wines. 16.1% ABV.
  
  Shauna gave a list of commercial yeast strained used to ferment the lots of this wine and the traits each one imparts. I'm sorry to say this was disappointing and it could just as easily be from Portugal as Contra Costa, #5/5 on the Contra Costa flight.

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• 2012 Scott Harvey Zinfandel Vineyard 1869

  USA, California, Sierra Foothills, Amador County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Scott Harvey. This was the first wine of the Amador County flight, and it occurs to me later that the heavily lemon-scented hand soap at the Four Seasons might account for some of the citrus notes I picked up in this wine, I'm honestly not sure. Just the same, it was a very nice wine!
  
  Medium ruby color, nose of Iron, cherry/cranberry, aromatic spice and a citrus/lime think hiding in the background. Palate is high toned, tart red fruits and citrus notes, coarse tannin on the finish that was a hallmark of all the Amador flight.
  
  I loved the lift the acidity brought to this wine. I called #2/5 on the flight but very close to #1, depending on preference for the approachability of this wine vs. the towering structure of the Turley Sadie Upton.
  
  Scott Harvey claims this is the oldest documented vineyard in California with vines back to the original planting. Amador's remoteness and soil content spared it from the Phylloxera epidemic which devastated vineyards in the late 19th century, leaving Amador with some of California's oldest vines planted on their own roots.

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• 2012 Sobon Estate Zinfandel Rocky Top

  USA, California, Sierra Foothills, Amador County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Paul Sobon. I was happy to see Sobon in the Amador flight. Their wines I've found to be on the ripe side, but great values and the tasting room is well worth a visit for their fantastic hospitality and very interesting historic museum.
  
  Color is a medium ruby, nose of chocolate covered cherries and green peppers. The nose carries the theme onto the palate with dark fruit, chocolate, coarse tannic finish, but a streak of bitter/green pepper running throughout. 14.5% ABV.
  
  Possibly American Oak is the culprit again, I don't know. Lovers of green pepper in their wine might find this interesting, but it's not for me. #5/5 on the Amador flight.

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• 2012 Terra d'Oro Winery Zinfandel Deaver Vineyard Old Vine

  USA, California, Sierra Foothills, Amador County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Chris Leamy. From the Deaver Vineyard planted 1881.
  
  Medium ruby color might start sounding like a broken record, but really all wines in this flight except the Turley were indistinguishable by color. Nose of dark fruits, blackberry, plus a dusty component. Palate was black raspberry, black pepper, coarse tannic finish.
  
  This wine was quite nice, although I rate it #3/5 in the Amador flight, that speaks as much to the quality of this flight than it does to this wine. I was pleasantly surprised by this, since most of my previous experience with Terra d'Oro was not positive.

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• 2012 Artezin Zinfandel Esola Vineyard

  USA, California, Sierra Foothills, Amador County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Randle Johnson.
  
  Medium ruby color is right in line with the rest of the Amador flight. Nose of soft red fruits, dark chocolate, somewhat port-like. Palate is red cherry with orange zest, black pepper, coarse tannins and a little heat on the finish. 15.4% ABV.
  
  According to Randle this wine was raised in 100% old French oak, all previously used Cabernet Sauvignon barrels more than two years old. I have this rated #4/5 on the Amador flight, but it was a very nice wine in a very high quality flight.

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• 2012 Turley Zinfandel Sadie Upton

  USA, California, Sierra Foothills, Amador County

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Tegan Passalacqua.
  
  Medium/dark ruby is the darkest color of the Amador flight. The shy nose is all flowers, violets with some coaxing. Some really interesting stuff here but it takes a lot of work to release the aromas, might be in a shut-down phase. Palate has some elegant red fruit, loads of roasted Herbs de Provence, towering structure, loads of coarse tannin on the finish. 15.7% ABV is not even perceptible. This is an impressive wine, has tons of stuffing but needs some time. A Turley to hide away. #1 of the flight.

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• 2012 Dry Creek Vineyard Zinfandel Beeson Ranch

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Tim Bell.
  
  Dark ruby color. Nose of plums, black cherry, and some kind of preserved fruit, almost like fruitcake. Tim Bell says he gets "fruit roll-up" and I wouldn't know what that smells like, but I think we're talking about the same thing here. Dark fruit palate with tart blackberries and plums, plus reduced balsamic. Dusty tannin on the finish. Lots of complexity but the balsamic element makes this seem a little weird to me. This was well-liked at our table. 14.5% ABV.

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• 2012 Peterson Winery Zinfandel Tradizionale West Vineyard

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Jamie Peterson.
  
  Dark ruby color, nose of dark chocolate covered cherries. Palate has some blackberry, white pepper, slight vanilly, dusty/tannic very long finish. 14.6% ABV.
  
  According to Jamie the grapes were destemmed but left intact as much as possible, and fermented on native yeast.
  
  This wine was really good and spoke strongly to Dry Creek. I found the quality of the Dry Creek flight was so high, not much point in rating these wines against each other.

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• 2012 Quivira Zinfandel Katz Vineyard Dry Creek Valley

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Hugh Chappelle.
  
  A medium-dark ruby color and a shy nose, with some coaxing getting blackberry and orange blossom. Very spicy palate, loads of black pepper backed by plums and blackberries, dusty tannins, and a very long finish.
  
  This was another excellent wine from the Dry Creek flight that I don't care to rank against its peers. According to Hugh, Katz Vineyard was planted around 1900 near Lytton East, 80-85% Zin with other mixed blacks and some white varieties interplanted. It's farmed organically but not certified. In the best years it hangs 2 tons/acre, and is fermented using ambient yeasts. Raised in all French Oak, 20% new.

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• 2012 Puccioni Old Vine Zinfandel

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Glenn Proctor.
  
  A medium ruby color and nose of flowers, red candy, and cured meats. Palate has dark fruits, smoky, dark chocolate, long tannic finish.
  
  This was a really interesting bottle, probably an outlier in the flight due to the smoky/cured meat aspect but an excellent bottle just the same. The flavor profile had me wondering if some interplanted Mourvedre or Syrah was showing itself here.

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• 2012 Dutcher Crossing Zinfandel Bill's Block Maple Vineyard

  USA, California, Sonoma County, Dry Creek Valley

  Poured at the Zap Flights presentation by the Historic Vineyard Society including discussion with winemaker Kerry Damskey.
  
  Dark ruby color, with a shy nose of dark cherry. Palate continues dark cherry, black pepper, a little boozy, tannic finish. 15.5% ABV.
  
  According to the winemaker, 20% whole clusters were included in the ferment.
  
  This speaks to Dry Creek but it's perhaps a little too generic; good but difficult to live up to the $51 price tag.

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Of the three flights, Contra Costa showed itself to be the most varying in quality, and one where the theme was difficult to trace though each wine, with the winemakers' touch probably showing more prominently than in the other flights. The Amador and Dry Creek flights seemed to present more cohesive themes, and were very high quality across the board.