2010 Zinfandel Pagani Ranch

"In 14 years I've never taken a vacation after harvest but in 2010 I had to," Mike Officer told me. The stress of the slow growing season, late August heat wave, a rapid harvest (six weeks instead of a normal eight) and intense sorting was simply overwhelming, he said. His brutal selection process involved cluster sorting on the vine and even taking sorting tables into the vineyard during harvest, often going down to a berry-by-berry selection. The result, he said, "was about 105 gallons per ton of grapes picked versus a normal 155." Officer says that his 2010s have strong phenolic character and tannins, which will make them wines to age, "longer than the 2009s, for sure."

This is a fabulous set of wines from Mike Office and Carlisle. Best of all, the wines remain very reasonably priced considering the quality and passion that goes into the bottle. Along with Morgan Twain-Peterson of Bedrock, Mike Officer is focused on seeking out the finest old-vine sites in California, which have either been neglected over the years, or are being bought by large-scale wineries who have little interest in discovering the quirks of these very old vineyards, most of which are planted with field blends that truly harken back to another era. The wines are made with indigenous yeasts and aged in French oak barrels, usually in the 20-30% range. I tasted all of the 2010s from barrel the day before they were scheduled to be moved into tank.