2006 Zinfandel Zeigler Vineyard Russian River Valley

Rod Berglund wanted to emphasize to me the importance he places on holding back wines from release "until they've started to give at least a little glimpse of what's under the baby fat." Berglund, who has been making wine at Swan for 21 years now, has a formidable stash of older Swan wines (not to mention an array of bottles from around the world) at his disposal to make his point that "people are way too hasty passing judgment on a new wine that's not meant to be itself until it's 5, or 10, or even 20 years old." Berglund told me that the 2009 harvest "was incredibly long, starting on September 3rd and winding up on November 13th, which is pretty remarkable."