Shooting Star Zinfandel Lake County 2008

Vineyards

For the Shooting Star Zin, we seek a fresher, fruitier style when compared to our old-vine Steele Zinfandels. We source two younger vineyards in Lake County for this wine: Hansmith and Duncan. Both are located near the dormant volcano Mount Konocti, the dominant geographical feature in Lake County. These vineyards drain well, have excellent exposure, and are not overly fertile.

Winemaking

All of the fruit is hand harvested and quickly delivered to the winery. The grapes are de-stemmed and gently crushed to tanks for fermentation. We ferment each vineyard lot separately. Following fermentation we pressed and racked the individual vineyard lots to American oak barrels for 8 months. Based on our stylistic approach to Shooting Star wines this Zin is lighter and fruitier than our Old-Vine Steele Zinfandels. We used approximately 80% neutral barrels and 20% new barrels in order to capture as much of the aroma and flavor of the grape as possible. This wine has aromas of raspberry and other ripe black fruit, butter, and just a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg.  The tannins and acids in this wine are soft but distinct.  Cedar tones with just a hint of plum make the finish a wonderful explanation point.