2014 Kite Hill Zinfandel

Wine Information

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81% Zinfandel, 19% Petite Sirah

Vintage

2014

Vineyard

York Creek

Appellation

Spring Mountain

Alcohol By Volume

14.3%

Winemaker Tasting Notes

Deep violet red color, blackberry jam and mint on the nose. Structured, well-coated tannins on the palate with minerally dark fruit and cocoa. Sensuous texture and a long layered finish. JO (8/17)

Vintage Notes

Flowering and set came early to York Creek in 2014, and warm weather throughout the growing season hastened ripening. We picked the zinfandel on September 4—one of the earliest harvests in recent years. After natural-yeast fermentation, we selected Kite Hill, a steep hillside block, for its intense fruit. During barrel aging, we added petite sirah from Burger Hill, bringing structure and definition to the ripe zinfandel. Rich, balanced, and approachable, it will continue to evolve over six to seven years.

History

Kite Hill Vineyard at York Creek, is situated high on Spring Mountain, overlooking St. Helena and the Napa Valley from the west. Ridge came here in 1971 for the old-vine petite sirah and made its first zinfandel from the vineyard in 1975. We first harvested Kite Hill in 1993, and have included it in our York Creek zinfandel in every vintage since. This is the second time it has been bottled as a separate wine.

Growing Season

Rainfall: Eighteen inches (half of normal)
Bloom: Mid-May
Weather: Very dry and cold December and January; most of the rain fell February through April. Cool spring followed by and early, warm summer.

Winemaking

Harvest Dates: 4 September for Zinfandel, 20 September for Petite Sirah
Grapes: Average brix 26.0°
Fermentation: Grapes destemmed and crushed, pumped over a floating cap and pressed at twelve days.
Barrels: 100% air-dried american oak barrels (25% new, 25% one year old, 50% two and three years old).
Aging: Twelve months in barrel

Kite Hill Vineyard grapes, hand-harvested; destemmed and crushed; fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; 5% water addition; 0.56 grams/liter tartaric acid added during fermentation; minimum effective sulfur for this wine (35 ppm at crush, 238 ppm over the course of aging); oak from barrel aging; pad filtered at bottling. In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.

Consumer Tasting Notes

Average Rating: 90.4

No. of Tasting Notes: 65

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