Joseph Swan Mancini Ranch Zinfandel 2009

As with the prior years wine the fruit in the nose is more reminiscent of boysenberries than of the usual blackberries. The cooking spice of the prior year has been replaced with a hint of mild pepper. In the mouth it is a little more lifted with a bright, fresh acidity framing the wonderful juicy fruit.

Boy, what a difference a year makes! 2008 was market by killing frosts that lasted until May. Mancini Ranch was decimated with over 90% of the shoots turned to what looked like cooked spinach in one night. Then the miracle of secondary shoots happened. The old vines began to look more like pincushions than grape vines. We left almost all of the shoots in order to have new growth to prune back to the following winter. With the new shoots came new clusters. Lots of them. They were small as second crop usually is but there were lots of them.