Zepaltas Wines

What more can be said about the Sonoma Coast? Cool, edgy growing conditions, exotic flavor profiles & great acidity-It’s all there. Our Appellation series wines have become the cellar staples that customers often write us to reorder. In 2010, we have once again accomplished our goal to produce an age-able, complex & dense wine at a friendly price.

The 2010 pinot is a blend of Suacci and La Cruz as it has been for the last few vintages. The breakdown of the blend is 17% Suacci Vineyard, and 83% La Cruz

The 2010 is a slightly softer wine compared to the 2009. Upon opening, this wine it unleashes aromas of shitake mushrooms, dried herbs, black cherry, earth, and ripe strawberries. As the wine opens up it begins to show cedar, violets, baking spice and wet stones. Because of its balanced acidity, the finish refreshing and clean, and it provides the framework for a lingering, but plush finish. This wine has come together nicely, and is fine to drink in the short term, but will only get better with 1-2 years in the cellar.

Once again, a pinot loaded with value that will provide complexity, pleasure any night of the week.

The advantage of having a slightly warmer, less risky site was key to making great wine in 2010. The summer that never happened caused much stress throughout Sonoma County, but it was smooth sailing at this vineyard. The W.E. Bottoms Vineyard is located in a little warm pocket up top of Harrison Grade that doesn’t experience as much of a high/low temperature differential as some of our other sites. It worked out quite well in 2010 at the vineyard.
On September 29, 2010(about 2 weeks later than usual) at the crack of dawn, we harvested all 4 clones from the vineyard. The clones were then hand sorted at the winery and co-fermented together using about 20% whole cluster. After 16 days on the skins, the wine was then pressed at directly to barrel, and left go through malolactic fermentation naturally.

On the nose there are hints of forest floor, cedar, cola and dried cherries, and on the palate we get blueberry, raspberry and a slight meatiness, all set up in a slightly softer framework that the more tannic 2009. There are definitely some chalky tannins present in the wine, but they are much more refined in the 2010. This wine was aged for 11 months in barrel (60% new) and the final blends were selected prior to bottling (unfined and unfiltered.) My guess is that this wine will be ready to drink before the 2009, but still should improve with about 2-4 years aging.

124 cases made
unfined & unfiltered

The “Big Brother” in our Appellation series of Pinot Noirs. We set out in 2008 to make a wine that could reflect the best characteristics of Russian River Valley, at a great price, with out overdoing it. I love Russian River fruit, and I set out to harness the power of the fruit in the Valley. I wanted to make a pinot that was a bit more lush and vibrant than the other Zepaltas Pinots, but still have it taste like a Zepaltas Wine. I wanted to have great acidity, dense fruit character, yet not have it taste like it was farmed by Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

The 2010 version seems to be right in line with our vision, despite the “uber- cool” vintage. As mentioned earlier, we were careful when selecting the pieces for this blend. It was a challenging year, and some lots just had to be cast off. We are definitely building this bottling over time, but we are not going to dilute the quality just to make more cases. It is a blend of two vineyards Nunes (North Santa Rosa) and W.E. Bottoms (Occidental), where the former contributes the intense fruit aromatics, and flavors and the latter adds the structure and rustic qualities. On the nose intense Raspberry, Cherry and Rhubarb pie jump out of the glass. With some aeration, touches of dead leaves and mushrooms appear. While the vibrant acidity is present, this wine has a silky, plush feel that makes the wine “ready when you are.”

321 cases made
unfined & unfilterd

The Suacci Vineyard is a truly unique site located southwest of Sebastopol, CA on the way out to Bloomfield. It is a cold, windy site that presents unique challenges each and every year. We are always crossing our fingers in September that the grapes will ripen, and somehow by early October we are happily harvesting.
The Suacci Vineyard Pinot Noir is unmistakably identifiable in our lineup year in and year out. It has always shown exotic flavors of pomegranate, earth, mushroom, herb and sheep’s milk cheese. With the 2009, we go deeper and darker with those flavors. As the vines are aging they seem to be shedding away the lively fruit characters of their youth, and gaining more and more complexity. The 2009 vintage was near perfect in its finish so that helped the cause immensely. Flavors, acid, tannins & sugars all were in harmony when it was time to harvest.
The 2009, on the nose, has more “dried” than “fresh” herb notes than in past vintages; most likely due to the 50% stem inclusion in the fermentation. Dark raspberry and pomegranate flavors dominate with secondary notes of earth, dead leaves and morel mushrooms. This wine has the framework and the depth to be both drinkable now, and after 2-3 years of cellaring.

The La Cruz Vineyard, the property owned by Keller Estate in the Petaluma Gap, has been consistently turning out elegant, densely flavored pinot for us since we started purchasing fruit in 2005. The vines that we source from are all hillside planted, low yielding vines. We can always expect powerful flavors with lots of layers.
We added a new clone to the mix in 2009. We got a couple tons of Pommard clone to go along with the Dijon 115, 114 and the mystery “Suitcase Clone” that we have been working with. What I like about the Pommard clone in general is the dark, earthy flavors it has, and for some reason works really well with stem inclusion during fermentation (about 25%.)
The final blend here is an equal mix of 115, 114, Suitcase Clone and Pommard. The wine was aged for 11 months in 40% new French oak barrels.
On the nose, scents of wet stones, cherry, currant, and on the palate, chalky tannins hold up the wine and give it structure and sets the stage for flavors of raspberry, strawberry and mineral. This wine should be good for both early drinking (with food) and cellaring for 3-5 years