2020 Jimsomare Zinfandel

Deep magenta in color with aromas of red plum, Bing cherry, acai berry, vanilla, and baking spices. Medium-bodied with flavors of strawberry, pomegranate, cranberry and red passion fruit. Elegant tannins, bright acidity, and a mouthwatering finish. TG (3/23)

Unique to the Santa Cruz Mountains and Monte Bello alike, Ridge has produced a zinfandel from a small old vine parcel at the Jimsomare Vineyard since 1968. In many vintages, jammy fruit and full structure characterize the wine. The 2020 is more elegant in style. After fourteen months in barrel, focused fruit and oak spice have integrated. Enjoyable now, this mountain-grown zinfandel will develop over the next six years. JO (2/22)

Since the late 1960s, Ridge has made small quantities of wine from this nineteenth-century vineyard. The vines were planted by Alsatian Pierre Klein, a San Francisco restaurateur. While famous for his Bordeaux-varietal wines, which won gold medals at the Paris Exposition of 1900, it was his zinfandel plantings that survived Prohibition and the Depression. In 1936, the Schwabacher family purchased Klein’s Mira Valle property, re-naming it “Jimsomare,” for James (father and son), Sophie (wife and mother), and Marie Louise (daughter). In 1966, vineyard manager Elmano Homem pruned the long-neglected vines, and brought the vineyard back to life. Ridge first harvested the zinfandel in 1968, and took over the farming of the ranch in 1996 as part of our Monte Bello Estate. We now refer to it by its original owner’s name as the Klein Ranch.

Rainfall: 22.4 inches (below normal)
Bloom: Late May
Weather: Decent rains in December led to dry weather in January and February. A very wet March and April helped the vines during the growing season. Unsettled weather in June saw several heat spikes in between cool spells.

Harvest Date: 21 September
Grapes: Average Brix 22.8˚
TA: 5.67 g/L
pH: 3.60
Fermentation: Grapes were de-stemmed and fully crushed; fermented with a floating cap and pressed at five days.
Barrels: 100% air-dried American oak barrels (20% new, 15% one year old, 25% four years old, and 40% five and six years old).
Aging: Fourteen months in barrel

All estate grown Monte Bello Vineyard grapes, hand-harvested; de-stemmed and crushed; fermented on the native yeasts, followed by full malolactic on the naturally occurring bacteria; oak from barrel aging; minimum effective sulfur for this wine (35 ppm at crush, 124 ppm over the course of aging). In keeping with our philosophy of minimal intervention, this is the sum of our actions.