Zepaltas Wines

--92 points Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar

The Suacci vineyard is a unique site that has flavors like no other. It can be funky before giving it a
bit of air. It definitely needs a couple years to relax in bottle for the signature racy acidity to
integrate. All of this is ok with me, I set out to make wines this way. I want a wine to need time.
My favorite wine moments have been with wines that have stood the test of time. If I could show
the 2005 vintage to you right now, you would see that it is just starting to show what it is all
about.

I decided to age the Suacci in barrel for 16 months as opposed to my normal 11 month aging
regime on my Pinot Noirs. I have tasted a lot of friend’s wines that age their wines for this long
and I love the results (and hey they do it longer in burgundy right?) The extra few months of
barrel time adds a slight bit more natural oxidation and seems to round the wine out a bit more.
Upon opening a bottle of this wine there are aromas of wet stones, sheep’s milk cheese, light
cherry and a bit of earthy funk. As the wine opens up, the classic Suacci flavors are here:
pomegranate, raspberry, and rosemary. This wine is definitely tight and will need some
cellaring/decanting to loosen itself up.

Located among the Redwood trees in the hills above Occidental, CA is the W.E. Bottoms
Vineyard. I feel that we achieved our most dense and powerful vintage to date.

On the nose the aromatics are screaming out of the glass with scents of black cherry,
herbs and forest floor backed with tobacco and blackberry flavors. We used 33% new
French oak to give the wine just a bit of oak spice, and enhance the fruit characteristics.
The finish is layered and powerful due to the assertive tannins. If there were a wine that
harnesses what is best about California Pinot Noir, and still displays notes of classic
Pinot this would be my best effort. This wine should age very nicely in my opinion, but
seems quite accessible now as long as there is a good meal to go with it.

As we did with the 08 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, we wanted to have a friendlier priced wine for the second half of our vintage year. You could say this is the more elegant, complex younger sister to the Russian River blend. We wanted to hold it a bit longer because it definitely needed time to integrate and put itself together. This wine is based on blending some of the La Cruz Vineyard and the Suacci Vineyard. On the nose we have hints of earth, mushroom, soy and truffle and with a little air cream, sandalwood laced with red currant and strawberry begin to show. This wine is very elegant and refined. The palate is soft, refreshing and has a powerful finish due to the acidity that zips it together. This wine will be great for everyday drinking because of the price point, but loaded with value because of its pedigree. One could argue that this classically styled pinot noir is one that could please even the most staunch Francophile.

Our best Chardonnay blend this year is a slightly different version, but of the same ilk than the 2007. We took bits from Keefer ranch and Sapphire Hill Vineyard. We aged the lots separately on the lees for 16 months and made the final barrel selections prior to bottling. The wines almost finished malolactic fermentation this year, but due to the racy acidity, it was hard for the bacteria to finish the job. The resulting wine is a crisp, refreshing Chardonnay that is not heavy handed with the oak-only 40% new French oak barrels were used.

If you were a fan of the 2007 you will not be disappointed, although a different vintage, the 2008 has its own special characters to it. On the nose you are greeted with scents of stone fruit, wet stones and a hint of anise. Sounds strange but it works to make this wine a bit more exotic than the 2007, but with the same structure. The finish is chalky, crisp and mouth watering. This wine is extremely versatile at the dinner table; Parmesan & baby green salad, simple roasted chicken (follow Thomas Keller’s recipe from the Bouchon cookbook for best results.) or a savory fish dish. This wine will be fun to age, but it works well right now.