2008 Zinfandel Zeigler Vineyard Russian River Valley

Rod Berglund told me that the 2010 "was torture, from waiting through the summer hoping that it would warm up to getting way more than we wished for, heat-wise, in mid-August." He pointed out that one day the temperature was in the mid-70s and the next day it was over 105 degrees. The only variety that made it through relatively unscathed, he said, was pinot noir, while all the other varieties were pretty well decimated. The result was half a normal crop of estate syrah, almost non-existent zinfandel production and no estate chardonnay at all. Berglund wrapped up harvest late, on November 6, with some of the little zin that survived the heat tsunami. Berglund is now working with chardonnay from Kent Ritchie's famed vineyard and is drawing from both young and older plantings, hence the two discrete bottlings.