Shooting Star Zinfandel Mendocino 2008

Vineyards

Mendocino County has a long history of grape growing. The Pacini vineyard is over 60 years old and many are even older. We mainly buy from older, head-pruned vineyards, which are self-limiting and give the best quality fruit. To ensure that we maintain our “Old Vine” style of Zinfandel we purchased the Pacini vineyard in 1996. Our rejuvenation of this struggling vineyard has allowed us to get a larger crop.

Winemaking

We harvested the grapes from the several different parcels in the Pacini Vineyard. All lots were then fermented and barrel aged separately in American Oak barrels. We evaluated the wines and chose the most intense lots for Steele and the lighter styled lots went into this bottling.