Martinelli Winery "Vigneto di Evo" Russian River Valley Zinfandel 2019

Winery Notes

Tasting Notes
Inviting aromas of juicy raspberry, black cherry and white peach hit your nose with the first swirl in your glass. Lively upon entry with flavors of ripe strawberry and sweet leather are followed by firm tannins and lasting pomegranate finish.

Vintage Notes
The 2019 season was overall very cool with record rainfall in Sonoma County in February. The vines however, were not affected by this because they were still dormant at the time. Similar to the 2018 season, spring and summer were moderate in temperature and ripening developed gradually and under minimal stress. This year was in fact so similar to 2018 that we began harvest the same day, on September 10th. Unfortunately another wildfire hit the region at the end of October, but luckily none of our vineyards were affected. The winery and many staff were evacuated, but we were able to keep an eye on the new vintage with a skeleton crew. The quality was not impacted and we are very excited at the concentration of flavors in this vintage.

Vineyard Notes
This wine is a barrel-blend from select Martinelli single vineyard zinfandel sites: Jackass, Vellutini, Lolita and Giuseppe & Luisa. Our Vellutini, Lolita and Giuseppe & Luisa vineyards were planted with cuttings from our 135 year-old Jackass Zinfandel clones. These vineyards are grown in cool regions of the Russian River Valley, allowing the deeper, dark flavors to develop in the grapes versus black pepper, characteristic of warmer vineyard sites. It is named for Evo Martinelli, who was raised on Martinelli Road. He was Lee Sr.'s first cousin, the son of Fred Martinelli. Evo gave Lee Sr. one of his first jobs out of the vineyard and instilled the importance of going to college in him as a young man.

Winemaking Notes