2023 Zinfandel Block 1

One of the things that attracted me to our winery property over the years was the beautiful Old Vine Zinfandel vineyard that surrounded the winery. We first leased the property with an option to purchase in 2021 and while beautiful, the vineyard had been farmed for production and sales to others.

Because of the extreme amount of hand labor needed to keep these old vines going It's quite difficult to maintain a break even much less a profitable farming operation when selling head pruned old vine fruit to others. In 2022 Choral and I bought the vineyard and began a process of quality improvements with a focus not for resale, but for producing on site and winemaking. You can see a more detailed timeline and vineyard information here:

Choral's Vineyard History & Blocks

In 2023 we first walked the vineyard breaking it into 8 individual blocks each with their own soil types and characteristics. Based on those blocks we harvested in 6 individual pickings, fermenting each separately to better understand the capabilities of each vineyard block. Block 1: This area is the oldest block on the property and sits in some of the most sandy soils. The fruit forms in smaller clusters and is very low production. Block 1 was also the first block we "Hard Pruned" on the property reducing the number of fruiting positions from 12-16 down to 6-8 per vine. Reducing the fruiting positions opens the canopy and lowers the crop load. This allows the old vines to better ripen the fruit, developing more depth and notably tannin.