Planted in the 1970s, Hillside Vineyard in Talmage sits right above the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. The vines are head-trained and planted on loam. Half of the Zinfandel grapes when into a stainless tank for a 7-day partial carbonic maceration (foot-crushed whole bunches on the bottom of the tank, with uncrushed whole bunches on top, in a completely sealed tank/no cap management). The other half of the Zinfandel grapes went into another stainless tank for reverse saignée for 11 days (half the tank was filled with uncrushed whole bunches and then filled up with direct pressed juice) and pumped over every few days. Both tanks were then pressed off and homogenized in a 7,000L foudre, and underwent 6 months of elévage. As always, no fining, filtration, or addition of SO2. Notes of fresh crushed blackberries, ripe black plums, with a touch of spice.
