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Z-52 specializes in vineyard designated Zinfandel; you cannot get more focused than that! They are based in Napa and similar to some of the other wineries we have visited, source fruit from high end vineyards both in Napa as well as other areas in California. Their philosophy is on terroir driven wines and in that case you go where you can find the highest quality fruit and depending on the varietal that is often outside of Napa. No, this winery should not be confused with the B52's, the rock band. Their name comes from the original vineyard they sourced fruit from which contains 52 rows, the last name of the winemaker starts with Z and just for fun, there are 52 weeks in a year and 52 cards in a full deck. As of press time, the owners of Z-52 run four other labels including Waterstone. They also are partners in the walk-in Taste at Oxbox tasting room in Napa (just down from the Oxbow Public Market) where occasionally you can sample the Z-52 wines.
Tasting Zinfandels from different vineyards side by side gives one a powerful respect for how terroir can influence the wines' flavor and aromas and produce markedly different wines. We began our tasting with their 2005 Lodi, Agnes Vineyard Zinfandel. The vines are over 50 years old, head pruned and dry farmed, all Central Valley floor grown. This is the jammiest of the Z-52 Zinfandels we tried but not overly so. Its a great food wine and chefs often find this is one of the easiest Zinfandels to pair with a variety of foods. This is by far their most produced wine. The 2004 Amador Clockspring Vineyard Zinfandel is from an organically farmed vineyard at about 1800 feet in elevation. This is a very full bodied wine full of cherry and raspberry notes on the palate. The nose is fruit driven with eclectic spice aromas. For those who grew up in the SF Bay area you may have heard the commercial that ends with, "cows in Berkeley" and then a mooing sound - try Zinfandel grown in Carneros? Carneros is synonymous with cooler climate varietals including Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. However, this is exactly where Z-52 sources their Zinfandel from. They source from the Truchard vineyard which has a unique microclimate compared to much of the Carneros district in that these vineyards are grown in a canyon which shelters the vines from the wind that so often blows through the Carneros region. Without the wind, you have a microclimate that can be significantly warmer at times. The only way you would "miss" the nose on this wine is if you are unable to smell. It is spice driven with great aromas of cloves, nutmeg and white pepper. The nose doesn't immediately continue to the palate which is actually more fruit driven with cranberry and other dried fruits up front. However, the spices creep up again in the finish. Z-52 is currently distributed in select markets in 42 states as well as parts of Europe, Asia & Canada. Their wines are all very reasonably priced. Visit: www.z52wines.com |
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Zacherle Wines is owned and operated by winemaker Nile Zacherle and his partner Joe Cabral. Zacherle's wines are available through their mailing list but the winery has plans to pour their wines in a joint tasting room in downtown Calistoga. We will update this review once they are open.
Nile, while born in Marin County had a connection to the Napa Valley early on; his father used to make the drive north to purchase grapes for his family's home made wine. In addition his uncle owned a cooperage in Calistoga. While originally studying brewing at UC Davis he fortunately branched off into winemaking. Like a number of his generation of winemakers International travel and winery work called and he found himself interning at wineries in New Zealand, Australia and France. It is this type of International experience that is almost imperative for younger winemakers to have today. He has already worked at a number of well known Napa wineries including the famed Chateau Montelena, Barnett, Sterling Vineyards and currently at both David Arthur and Montagan on Pritchard Hill. It is extremely rare in the Napa Valley to find a non vintage wine of any varietal much less port. Zacherle's extremely limited production non vintage port is from the Lava Vine Vineyard in Knights Valley just over the county line in Sonoma County. Nile has always tried to find small vineyards and produce wine with unique site expression or terroir characteristics. This vineyard fits the bill in this case - in addition, Nile helped with the initial planting of this vineyards and is actively involved in the vineyard management. The Lava Vine vineyard is very steep, with slopes up to 45 degrees and the soils are mainly composed of volcanic ash, rock and petrified wood. Their first release of Port from this vineyard really delivers well integrated layered flavors. This port is not fortified with brandy, rather grain alcohol is used which helps keep the concentrated varietal flavors at the forefront of the palate. It is composed of three vintages and contains two traditional Portuguese varietals; Tinta Cau and Turiga National both of which are commonly found in parts of Portugal. In our experience of visiting hundreds of vineyards in Napa, these two varietals are extremely rare to find! This wine is dark and dense looking in the glass with aromas of cherry, sage and fully ripe black cherries. The entry is sweet but not overly so with good tannin structure. Flavors include blackberry and coffee bean with a pleasant dustiness on the finish. As of press time between both the Zacherle and Lava Vine wines, there are several unique Syrahs available. We tried the 2005 Zacherle Syrah - it is a dark inky wine which at the time of our tasting already had almost a year and a half in bottle. As a result the wine had softened considerably since the initial bottling and was tasting very nice. This isn't a huge in your face Syrah, rather its fairly smooth throughout with an inspirational flavor profile from start to finish. The 2005 Spring Mountain Syrah on the other hand is about as big and chewy with a strong tannin backbone as you will find in a Syrah. This wine is from the bio dynamically farmed Crowley Vineyard located at about 2000 feet above the Napa Valley floor. Notes of spices and crushed black pepper start in the nose and continue onto the palate especially on the finish. While drinking this wine we automatically thought of what this wine would drink well with and concluded that something bbq'd, gamey or oven roasts would make good pairings. Zacherle's wines are typically produced in quantities of merely several hundred cases with several wines coming in at under a hundred cases. For more information visit: www.zacherlewines.com Note: Zacherle is part of a shared tasting room called Up Valley Vintners - open to the public, located at 1371 Lincoln Ave in downtown Calistoga. Cellar Angels Video |
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Their production is small, generally around 4000 cases. All fruit is sourced from premium vineyards in Napa & Sonoma County. A tasting will start with their one white wine; the Chardonnay. It is interesting in that it combines fruit from two totally separate vineyards located at opposite ends of the valley, one in a warm and one in a cool growing climate. The end result is a complexity of tropical flavors including very ripe pineapple and passion fruit. Zin lovers take note. Zahtila has made a name for herself by producing two high quality radically different styled Zinfandels. Her 2005 Dry Creek Zinfandel is from an area known to produce excellent Sonoma County Zins and is made in a leaner style than the 2005 Oat Hill Estate Zinfandel. The Oat Hill is the only wine sourced from the property (from the tiny 2 acre hillside vineyard behind the tasting room). It has significant longer hang time than the Dry Creek Zinfandel which allows the fruit to really ripen. It is only slightly jammy which is refreshing compared to the over the top jammy Zins we've had on occasion and is full of blackberry and assorted spices on the palate. Also try their Cabernets including the single vineyard Rutherford version from the highly acclaimed Beckstoffer Vineyard. Your pourer will often pour the two zins and two cabs side by side so you can compare. Visiting is on a quasi appointment basis; their tasting room is very small and if it is already packed you may need to schedule a later appointment otherwise drop by and sign their register before you start tasting. In the early springtime beautiful flowering trees grace the property including a plethora of other annuals. Zahtila has been producing wines since 1999 and has already picked up its share of top wine awards at various competitions. This is a very low production winery so some of their more popular wines do sell out rather quickly. Visit: www.zahtilavineyards.com |
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They opened their current winery in 1980 and it has since undergone major renovation and now it is a world class winery building. Their inner courtyard area of the building looks almost like the Sonoma Mission in the town of Sonoma in neighboring Sonoma County. They have a unique winery sign; raised gold lettering sits on a natural rock near their short steep driveway. Drive down to the small parking lot; the winery is on the north side of the parking lot. Their grapes come from from all over Napa Valley although they have estate vineyards on site, all certified organic. Choose from two tasting flights at their large semi-circular counter, a Current Release and a Premier tasting. Their Riesling is delicious and not overly sweet; these grapes originate from Santa Barbara County. We have had several nice Rieslings recently from Santa Barbara county sourced fruit. ZD also has an excellent stand alone Petite Verdot. Petit Verdot is usually used as a varietal for blending and only a small number of Napa wineries produce this as a stand alone varietal. Their smooth Cabernet Sauvignon is worth trying and the vintage we tried had a soft tannin structure on the finish. We've been here several times and its always nice to find the counter empty as during most weekends boistrous wine drinkers line the bar. During one of our recent tastings we tried their Reserve selection. These are wines that are typically produced in quantities of less than 2000 cases. The 2005 Reserve Chardonnay did not undergo Malolactic Fermentation and has a nice balance between fruit flavors and acidity. It is slightly creamy with a beautiful golden color in the glass. The 2006 Reserve Pinot noir is a rich wine with soft tannins with a complexity of flavors that makes for a long interesting finish. ZD wines have been served at several Presidential State dinners. Check out their Saturday Cheese Pairing seminar (by app only). Visit www.zdwines.com Wine with Tony |
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Zeitgeist Cellars was founded by the Napa husband-wife winemaking team of Mark Porembski and Jennifer Williams. Both work on Zeitgeist but also work for several other small wineries in the area. Mark is winemaker at Anomaly and Charnu and Jennifer is head winemaker at Spottswood Estate.
Mark's background is not in wine - rather he was an English major but remembers becoming interested in wine in college. While studying in Dallas he incidentally met two guys from St. Helena. There are those winemakers who have truly followed their passion and thrown caution to the wind. Take Mark for instance; after college he packed everything into his car and drove out to the Napa Valley without even lining up a job. Fortunately he arrived during harvest when seasonal jobs are easier to find and as it were, he found a job the day he arrived. Internships at notable Napa wineries including Far Niente, Araujo and El Molino followed. 2005 was Zeitgeist's first vintage; the wine has been made every year at the boutique Behrens and Hitchcock Winery, high on Spring Mountain. Zeitgeist has used two vineyard sources for their first few vintages - St. Helena and from the eastern side of Coombsville near the town of Napa. Their focus is on producing a single Cabernet Sauvignon each year - one that delivers quality at a reasonable price. They have sourced small quantities of Syrah in the past (not made every year). The name Zeitgeist means "the spirit of the times" a term that relates to the current wine industry very well. In the 1960's there were maybe 30 wineries in Napa - today there are well over 400 with more than twice that number being virtual producers. As Mark says, there are many more small virtual producers today who are helping push the envelope for quality. There are certainly more options for success today then say 30 years ago. We tried the 2006 and 2007 vintages. There are some noticeable differences between the wine (both sourced from the same two vineyards), some of which can be attributed to bottle age, vintage and proportion of vineyard source used. The St. Helena vineyard tends to contribute more fruit to the blend while the Farella vineyard (slightly cooler growing region) contributes the structure and layers. The 2006 shows an elegant bouquet with a mix of both red and dark fruit notes including red plum, red and black cherry. This is a classic Napa Cabernet bouquet with just a hint of dustiness. The palate shows good acidity and balanced fruit. The finish is pleasing; it is clean and supple with just a hint of lingering mocha on the palate. The tannins are fine grained and soft, complementing rather than dominating the finish. The 2007 has a more restrained nose than the 06' with nice notes of sweet fruit on the bouquet - red cherry and raspberry. This is a layered wine with bigger structure than the 06'. We tried this wine right before release; it should benefit from additional bottle age. It has good structure, depth and acidity to carry it for a number of years. Zeitgeist is very careful during their winemaking, most notably during two stages; one with their sorting - they sort multiple times taking care to remove any desiccated fruit or unripe berries - and then again during their blending trials. They will only blend the highest quality barrels and if a barrel "is on the fence" as Mark says, it will not make the final blend. One year they started with 18 barrels and ended up only using 5 for their release. Zeitgeist has a fairly good distribution within the Napa area and you can often find the wine at 750 Wines, ACME, St. Helena Wine Center and V Wine Cellars in Yountville. For more information visit: www.zeitgeistcellars.com |
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Ziata Wines is a new venture founded by long time wine industry veteran Karen Cakebread. While Karen was working for Hewlett Packard an opportunity arose to move to Asia. During that time she worked as an international marketing consultant for Cakebread Cellars about when Cakebread was just starting to export wines to Asia. Upon returning to California she was faced with the choice of where to work. As Karen says, "Silicon Valley or Napa Valley?" - she obviously chose Napa and worked at Cakebread from 1989 through 2006. She became their events director and was responsible for their educational, wine, culinary and hospitality programs.
With her long term involvement tirelessly promoting Napa Valley through the Napa Vintner's Association (served on the board for 4 years as well as the steering committee in charge of the annual, Auction Napa Valley), it is only fittingly that she now has her own wine label. When choosing a name for her new project obviously her last name was taken so she started looking at her family names. Her mother's maiden name was Annunziata and the name Ziata is a tribute to her. She started this label as a way to become involved in all aspects of the vineyard to bottle process as well as the fact that she enjoys a lighter style wine. She says, "I like all wines some of the time but Sauvignon Blanc all of the time"! As of the time of this review she also has a 2008 Pinot Noir which will be released sometime in late 2009 or Spring of 2010. Additional plans call for a Cabernet Sauvignon. Karen also has an acre of land in the northern part of the Napa valley and will be planting this to Sauvignon Blanc and several years from now will have an estate wine from this small vineyard. Anne Vawter is the winemaker and has made all vintages. Anne is a graduate of UC Davis (Viticulture and Enology) and worked with Heidi Barrett at Paradigm Winery for several years and currently makes wine for Varozza in St. Helena. She has a soft touch when it comes to winemaking preferring to conduct most of the winemaking work in the actual vineyard. Ziata's first release, the 2008 Sauvignon Blanc is from a small 1 acre site east of the town of Napa. This small vineyard sits at the base of volcanic bluffs which over the years have dropped their rocks down to the soils which now make up the vineyard. As a result this vineyard grows on very a rocky and well drained site. Three Sauvignon Blanc clones are planted, each of which contribute something unique to the wine. The wine was fermented in stainless steel and then saw 4 months aging in neutral French Oak. This is a sophisticated and delicately styled Sauvignon Blanc that is nicely in balance. The initial bouquet shows pleasant mineralities and notes of crushed rock, almost gravelly in nature. As the bouquet opens hints of honeysuckle are revealed and more fruit, most notably aromas of ripe pineapple. The nose is very aromatic in part from the attributes of the Musque clone. The lively palate also shows some mineralities, green apple and lemon but is certainly not "green" in flavor. The wine is styled in a leaner fashion but with a hint of creaminess which rounds out the mouth feel very well. Lively acidity and bright young fruit make this an excellent wine to pair with food. In fact, some of Karen's friends have submitted recipes they feel goes well with this wine and these are found on her website. Production is tiny - only 252 cases were made. Karen has a unique passion for travel and exploring some of the off the beaten paths in various countries. She works with a number of charities including Wine Women and Shoes and was a founding board member of the Elaine Mackie Charitable Trust to raise money and awareness about Breast Cancer. Part of this organization's fund raising efforts included trekking around the world and summiting select mountains including Kilimanjaro. You can find Ziata Wines locally at Backroom Wines in Napa and a number of area restaurants including Press St. Helena and Cole's Chop House in Napa. Visit: www.ziatawines.com |
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