Black Sears is a Howell Mountain vineyard and winery. Its owners, Joyce Black and Jerre Sears purchased the property in 1979, were married there in 1981 and it has long been a source of acclaimed Zinfandel grapes. The fruit has been featured in Black Sears’ own wines, but also top-scoring bottles from Turley and others. There are just 17 acres of the Zinfandel, planted in 1975 and dry-farmed.

Black Sears wines are made on site at the top of Howell Mountain by Thomas Rivers Brown. A highly sought-after winemaker of highly sought-after wines, Brown started out at Turley 15 years ago. Now, his projects include Schrader, Outpost, Seaver Family and his own brand, Rivers-Marie.

Black Sears has a history of excellent winemaking. Ted Lemon of Littorai made both the Black Sears and Littorai wines there, up on the hill, for a dozen years until he constructed his own Sebastopol winery in 2007.

The 2009 Black Sears Estate Zinfandel Howell Mountain is a wine with power and personality. It is medium-plus ruby in the glass. Aromatic intensity is just beyond medium, but there is plenty of dark complexity. Black pepper and a melange of other dark spices float above black cherry, blackberry preserves and blueberry. The palate is focused. Dark and briary fruit provide a smooth welcome. The medium-plus body is driven by tannins — at first lightly grainy then, with some air, powdery. They quickly build a structure that organizes the fruit and sends it marching in orderly fashion with just enough time to grab black pepper, a square of chocolate and a tin of moist, dark tobacco.

This is serious, Howell Mountain Zinfandel. It will add complexity with ten years in the cellar. But, you can easily enjoy it now with 30 minutes or so in a decanter and a slab of juicy ribs. Very Highly Recommended.

You can taste a barrel-sample of the 2010 Black Sears Zinfandel and hundreds of Zinfandel wines this week at the ZAP! Festival. Take a look at this article for more information.

2009 Black Sears Estate Zinfandel Howell Mountain
Rating: Highly Recommended

Drink: Now through 2022
Release Date: Fall, 2011

Closure: Natural cork
Retail Price: $45.00

This wine was purchased for review.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2012 NorCal Wine. Black Sears emblem courtesy of the winery and includes a painting by J. Beauchamp. All rights reserved.

Tres Sabores is a Rutherford producer of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah. They also produce a Sonoma Mountain Sauvignon Blanc from the Farina Vineyard and, this year, a Chardonnay from that same vineyard. Tres Sabores estate vineyard was purchased by Frog's Leap Winery in 1987 with established Zinfandel vines. Current Tres Sabores’ owner-winemaker Julie Johnson was a co-founder of Frog’s Leap with her then-husband, John Williams, and Larry Turley. The grapes were used in Zinfandel blends. By 2001 though, Johnson was having Zinfandel wines made under the Tres Sabores label.

Tres Sabores Zinfandel is grown on 45-year old vines. The vineyard is on benchland in northwest Rutherford. Julie lives on the property with her family and watches over the certified organic vineyard closely. The property resembles a biodynamic vineyard in that it’s home not just to vines but a harmonious ecosystem of flowers, vegetables, herbs, pomegranates, olives, sheep, guinea hens, etc. I very highly recommend their tasting/tour (by appointment). When I take people there, it's always their favorite visit of the day.

Tres Sabores wines are made with intent to reflect both uniqueness of the vineyard and varietal typicity. Fermentation is done with ambient yeasts when possible. New oak is used with restraint. Fruit is picked when just ripe, leading to complexity rather than high-viscosity and jammy fruit. The grapes for this Zinfandel were harvested in six different passes over a five-week period.

The 2009 Tres Sabores Rutherford Zinfandel is medium-plus intensity ruby in the glass with a nose of mixed black fruit, especially blackberry and black cherry, brambles, peppery oak, spice and herb. The body is medium to medium-plus with moderate, fine-grained tannins that provide welcome texture without impeding flavors. Those include black fruit and a melange of herb and spice, including star anise.

This is an excellent Zinfandel that shows both power and restraint. Accordingly, it can complement a broad range of foods from grilled salmon or roast chicken to venison to grilled ribeye. A juicy burger or slice of pizza would be just fine too. To experience it at its very best, shoot for a serving temperature of 61 - 62 degrees. Highly Recommended.

2009 Tres Sabores Rutherford Zinfandel
Rating: Highly Recommended

Drink: Now through 2016
Release Date: Fall, 2008

Closure: Cork
Production: 484 cases
Retail Price: $35.00

The wine above was purchased for review.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2012 NorCal Wine. All rights reserved.

The Paso Robles AVA is both the largest undivided official viticultural area in California (meaning that it has no smaller AVAs within it) and the fastest growing. Just ten years ago, there were only 35 wineries in the 609,673 acre region. The region was expanded slightly in February 2009, tacking on another 2,635 acres. But, more significantly, the number of bonded wineries has grown to nearly 200.

Consequently, getting to all of the wineries down there is quite a task. Thacher Winery is one that I frequently drove by, but never had time to visit. I was always on the way somewhere else without time to stop. But, on a recent trip to Paso Robles my tasting and routing were so efficient that I was finally able to make a quick detour and belly up to their tasting bar. I came away impressed.

I tried six wines on my visit. In general, their wines are bold, fleshy and packed with ripe fruit. I’m recommending four of them here. I found these to be the most balanced and compelling. They are all yummy if you like the style, but the highlight for me was the 2008 Zinfandel.

The 2008 Thacher Zinfandel is a delicious, hedonistic Zinfandel. It offers beautiful aromas of blackberry jam and spice. The palate is full-bodied for Zinfandel with rich, ripe, sweet fruit and happy alcohol all framed by lovely powdery tannins. The mouth-filling flavors of cocoa, blackberry and oak are long-lasting. Serve a glass with grilled wild boar sausage. Highly Recommended.

Other Thacher wines I enjoyed:
2009 Thacher Viognier: Honeysuckle, pear and under-ripe peach. Generous body and length. Unoaked. Recommended. [14.4% alcohol, $25]

2007 Thacher Syrah Paso Robles: Jammy plum, spice, cherry and oak. An easy drinker, but warming. Recommended. [14.8% alcohol, $25]

2008 Thacher Controlled Chaos: Mourvedre, Zinfandel and Grenache combine for a nose of garrigue, purple fruit and earth but chocolate-covered berry flavors. Chalky tannins and a peppery finish. Highly Recommended. [15.7% alcohol, $35]

Thacher Winery is located at 8355 Vineyard Drive. That’s on the West Side, about midway between Adelaida Rd. and Peachy Canyon Rd. Their dedicated tasting building is just the right size and offers t-shirts and other items in addition to wine without seeming overly commercial. The room is staffed by friendly people and relaxed winery dogs. It is open Thursday - Monday, 11am to 5pm and by appointment.

The tasting room at Thacher Winery in Paso Robles. (photo: Fred Swan)

2008 Thacher Zinfandel
Rating: Highly Recommended

Drink: Now through 2014
Bottling Date: August 2010
Closure: Cork
Production: 190 cases
Retail Price: $29.00

The wine above was tasted at the winery.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2012 NorCal Wine. Photos by Fred Swan. All rights reserved.

I like Zinfandel. As a 5th generation Northern Californian, I suppose fondness for that grape may be in my blood. I don’t like all wines made with Zinfandel though. While Zinfandel wines tend to be high in alcohol, some are allowed — perhaps encouraged — to become more powerful than they ought.

The most common defense for this is that “the wine is balanced.” But Zinfandel is not a very tannic grape, nor is it high in acid. So, that balance is sometimes achieved through substantial artificial acidification and extended aging in a high percentage of brand new oak barrels. Yes, the drink is balanced. But the charms of the Zinfandel itself have been lost in a raisiny haze of alcohol, sugar, coconut and chocolate.

The 2009 Quivira Vineyards and Winery Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley is balanced. But it reached balance through moderation rather than unsubtle additions. In the words of a fellow taster, Quivira’s 2009 Zinfandel “is actually quite beautiful.” And the alcohol is below 15%. You could have a glass with lunch.

The majority of the fruit in this wine came from Quivira’s own vineyards. They are certified biodynamic and organic. Quivira also maintains biodynamic gardens (photo at left, taken in August). There are flowers, a wide variety of produce, a lily pond, chicken coop, greenhouse and more. Visitors to Quivira can wander through the gardens on a self-guided tour.

Apart from whatever environmental benefits biodynamic growing brings, it necessitates that the vines be carefully watched and tended. It discourages pushing for excess ripeness. And I suspect that wineries which foster a balance of nature in the vineyard are more likely to seek natural balance in their wines.

This wine isn’t just a case of good vineyard practices being allowed to shine though. The 2009 Quivira Zinfandel is also the result of excellent winemaking. That includes a complex but restrained barrel regime and somewhat unusual blending. A mixture of French, American and Hungarian oak was used, but the amount of new oak was small. More than 50 different component wines were evaluated when assembling the final blend. There’s some Petite Sirah in the mix, not unusual for a Zinfandel “varietal” wine. There is also Syrah and Grenache. But, the largest non-Zinfandel component is Cabernet Sauvignon. It works.

Medium-plus ruby in color, the 2009 Quivira Dry Creek Zinfandel has a pretty nose of blueberry, blackberry and huckleberry accented by cocoa and oak notes. The wine is medium-plus in body with integrated tannins of similar weight and pretty flavors of blueberry, blackberry, chocolate, vanilla and sweet spice. The finish is smooth and lengthy. Drink now through 2015. Highly Recommended.

2009 Quivira Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley
Rating: Highly Recommended
Drink: Now through 2015
Release Date: August, 2011

Closure: Cork
Production: 5363 cases
Retail Price: $20.00

The wine was provided for review by the winery.

Follow NorCalWine on Twitter for breaking wine news, information on events and more. Become a fan and join the NorCal Wine community on Facebook. Also check out our comprehensive Northern California winery listings. They are very useful for planning a tasting trip or just getting in touch with a winery.

This article is original to NorCalWine.com. Copyright 2011 NorCal Wine. Photo by Fred Swan. Label art courtesy of Quivira Vineyards and Winery. All rights reserved.