August Briggs Old Vines Zinfandel 2013

This wine is a combination of two local historic vineyards. The first, the Luvisi Vineyard planted in 1906, and, the second, the Frediani Vineyard, which was planted in the 1950s. These two vineyards are head trained and non-irrigated, thus yielding one to two tons per acre.

Even for a year like 2012 where larger crops prevailed these two vineyards had low yields that created intense flavor and incredible richness. This is one of the ‘biggest’ Zinfandels we have ever produced.

This is a Zinfandel that will age nicely for another 6-8 years. Each vineyard block was harvested and fermented separately. The clusters were all hand sorted before being destemmed into small open-top fermenters, and punched-down twice daily by hand. Following fermentation and pressing, they were inoculated for malo-lactic fermentation and barreled down for 18 months in oak. The barrels used were 30% new hybrid American/French oak barrels, and 70% two to three year old French oak barrels.