Birichino St Georges Zinfandel 2021 (6 Bottles) Santa Cruz, California

by Fine Wine Cellars

$471.00 GST Included

AUSTRALIA WIDE SHIPPING INCLUDED

Santa Cruz. From the same vineyard as the Saint Georges Pinot Noir (Besson’s Home Ranch), the Zinfandel vines were apparently planted by an Italian bootlegger in 1922. Rooted in granite and sandy loams, Besson’s ungrafted Zinfandel benefits from morning and afternoon sun, while the unusually fresh marine-moderated night-time temperatures permit full expression and flavour development without requiring exacerbated degrees of alcohol.

The yields from these old, well-established, own-rooted vines are meagre, averaging just one tonne per acre.

To showcase the grape’s fresher, nuanced, and silkier side, the Birichino boys pick their Zin early, usually between 13 and 13.5% potential alcohol. At the same time, the low-impact winemaking is geared towards balancing the fresh acidity and juicy fruit offered by this unique Santa Cruz vineyard.

In 2020, full maturity and equilibrium in the vineyard were reached at 14.5%. So, while it may not be super-typical of the Birichino style, it still remains a mile away from the brawny, hulk-like examples of brand Zinfandel.

Fermented with 10% stems, there is a lively, saline feel to the wine’s depth of bramble and-tea scented fruit, and the longer it stays in the glass, the better and better it gets. Plump red berry, lots of spice, and Fernet flavours seep out on the palate before the wine finishes with the kind of savoury grip and mouth-watering freshness that remind you the Pacific Ocean lies only 12 miles to the west. It’s rare to taste a Zinfandel as classy and nuanced as this.

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Description

About Birichino Wines

Alex Krause and John Locke founded Birichino in Santa Cruz in 2008. Drawing on a combined four decades making wine in California, France, Italy, and beyond, they are focused on attaining the perfect balance of perfume, poise, and puckishness.

Sourcing from a number of carefully farmed, family-owned, own-rooted 19th and early 20th century vineyards (and a few from the late disco era) planted by and large in more moderate, marine-influenced climates, their preoccupation is to safeguard the quality and vibrance of their raw materials.

Their preference is for minimal intervention, most often favoring native fermentations, employing stainless or neutral barrels, minimal racking and fining, and avoiding filtration altogether when possible. But most critically, their aim is to make delicious wines that give pleasure, revitalize, and revive.

Fine Wine Cellars

On the one hand, our role as a merchant of all things wine & spirits could not be simpler. We aim to source the most delicious, the most authentic, and the highest quality products possible from Australia and around the world in order to offer them to our clients. We live or die by how well we perform this task. Of course things are rarely as simple or as easy as they seem. Hunting for wines & spirits is no different. Apart from the months spent travelling, countless days and evenings spent tasting and the outrageous wine expenditure in the name of ‘research’, sourcing quality wine and spirits requires expertise and experience. Understanding the potential of a producer and their products is much more than just a slurp and a spit.

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