2017 Blasi Zinfandel

Focused aroma of raspberry, black pepper and vanilla. Medium-to-full bodied with ripe cherry fruit, refreshing acidity and an elegant lingering finish. JO (2/19)

This old vine vineyard, owned by Jim Metcalfe, is farmed by Gary Blasi. Poor fruit set and very warm weather leading up to harvest reduced yields. However, quality and concentration of the remaining crop was excellent. Aging in american oak adds spice to the wine’s rich, elegant fruit. This fine zinfandel is enjoyable as a young wine and will be at its best over the next five to six years.

Gary Blasi has been farming this old vines vineyard in the Chalk Hill appellation for over forty years on a handshake agreement with owner Jim Metcalfe. This is the third time the wine has been labeled with Gary’s name to credit his many years of meticulously farming this classic vineyard.

Rainfall: 61.5 inches (above normal)
Bloom: Mid-May
Weather: A wet winter gave us the needed rains. Cool weather in the spring affected set across all varieties. Several heat spikes in late June, July and August saw temperatures over 105 degrees. Harvest started before the Labor Day heat wave hit; we quickly finished harvesting by mid-September.

Harvest Dates: 9 September
Grapes: Average brix 24.3°
Fermentation: Natural primary and secondary for eleven days in small fermentors.
Barrels: 100% air-dried american oak: (20% new, 20% one year old, 30% four years old and 30% five years old).
Aging: Ten months in barrel

All Blasi grapes, hand-harvested; destemmed and crushed; fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria;tartaric acid; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur for this wine (92 ppm at bottling), pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

Average Rating: 90.2

No. of Tasting Notes: 7

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