Dear Artisans,
It's time to break out the grill and pop open not just any Zin—we're talking about the holy grail and O.G. of bold-yet-complex age-worthy Zinfandel. This takes you right back to why you loved Zin so much "way back when" and it's truly nostalgia at its finest most delicious.
And we do mean delicious - this is an incredible edition of Rockpile Ridge Zinfandel from Mauritson's Rockpile Winery. This subset of an already small production family-run winery is focused on ten distinct hillside blocks. Rockpile Ridge Vineyard is located at nearly 1,200-ft. elevation in the Rockpile appellation. This vineyard has sweeping sun exposures from southeast to northwest. The blocks are all harvested at different times and fermented separately to insure the integrity and uniqueness of the individual blocks.
As you likely know, Clay Mauritson's family has been farming this part of Dry Creek Valley since 1868, with grapes planted as early as the 1880s, but it wasn't until Clay finished college in the 1990s that he started making wine from his own grapes. The Rockpile label has only been in use for a handful of vintages, and this is the first supervised by new winemaker Emma Kudtrizki Hall. She joined Mauritson in 2011, was promoted to Winemaker in January 2019, and shares founder Clay Mauritson’s belief that the best wines capture a specific sense of place, as well as express the unique conditions of each vintage...which brings us to today's extremely limited offering.
Rockpile Ridge Zinfandel carries all of the signature aromas expected from Zinfandel grown in Rockpile: candied cherry and plum; dark cocoa; ground roasted coffee; savory dried herbs and sweet earth. This energetic Zin can be enjoyed now or would benefit from at least 1-2 years of bottle age.
Background, courtesy of Wine Advocate: The brand has grown from 125 cases in 1998 to 1,000 cases per year now—but growing grapes isn’t new for the Mauritson family. They have been farming grapes in Dry Creek since 1868, and Clay’s great-great-great grandfather was the first to plant vines in the Rockpile region in 1884. By the 1960s, their ranch covered 4,000 acres—most of which was flooded in the 1960s with the development of Lake Sonoma. After decades of selling grapes and grazing sheep, it was only in the mid-1990s that Clay decided to make wine from some of his family’s vineyards. They currently own more than 300 acres of estate vines in Rockpile, Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, in addition to purchasing fruit from growers across Sonoma County.
We're down to the last 50 bottles of the vintage for this beauty, and they will be claimed quickly. Only 684 cases were made, and this wine is usually only available to club members, so this is definitely rare and limited!
Cheers,
—James Tran
