2010 Zinfandel Pesenti Vineyard

This is a thrilling set of wines from Larry Turley, Ehren Jordan and Tegan Passalacqua Tasting this wide a range of 2010 and 2011 Zinfandels and Petite Syrahs is like taking a master class in California terroir. The house style favors an expression of Zinfandel and Petite Syrah built on aromatic intensity and elegance, which Jordan credits to gentle extractions. At times, the wines come across as quite Burgundian in the way they express richness but not excess heaviness. Over the last few years, the wines have become a little more laid-back and less overtly ripe, which is a net positive given that the starting point for all of these wines is fruit of exceptional quality. The Petite Syrahs in particular are noteworthy because they are among the few wines that find the elegance Petite Syrah is capable of, while avoiding the massive tannins that are so typical elsewhere. The 2010s are strong across the board, although Turley did not bottle a few of their wines from sites that got scorched by the heat spikes, which includes the Highway 101 and Zampatti. The 2011s are more variable, as befits a vintage that had much less favorable conditions overall.

Larry Turley, who has never met an old-vines zinfandel vineyard he didn't like, is now farming 250 acres, of which he owns 153. His zinfandel vineyards in particular run a full gamut of soil types, geography, altitude, exposure and microclimate. Turley's normal pattern is to use new vineyard sources for his Old Vines zinfandel until he brings the viticulture up to his standards, at which point he introduces a new vineyard-designated wine. Director of winemaking Ehren Jordan assured me that all of the 2010s here are bone-dry, even the wines that approach 16% alcohol. Two thousand ten was a cool year that required significant crop-thinning to ripen the rest. A few vineyards were hurt by the extreme heat spike in late August, Jordan reported: for example, there's no Vineyard 101 bottling from this vintage.