At first glance, you might be thinking, “what in the world is weird about another Cali Zin?” After all, we know that California produces veritable oceans of the stuff- from the Central Valley to the Napa Valley.   Drank by the miners back in gold rush days, Zinfandel was in decline until the mid 1980’s when the ‘craze’ for ‘white’ zinfandel spread like a blight on the land. While its popularity declined, zinfandel properly vinified took off with cult producers like Turley demanding huge sums for its polished single vineyard zins.

Still to the question of why the Coturri zin is weird, which we wish it wasn’t- Oh God, how we wish it wasn’t weird at all. We at The UnCorker fervently hope to one day be able to consider this a delicious but un-weird wine- common even, which it certainly is not. Let us consider the ways. Its organic- and yes, lots of Cali wine is organic, but the Coturri folks put the O in organic. No SO2, no inoculation with sulfites, no yeast cultures, no use of concentrates to boost sweetness(yes, people do that all the time in California), no added water, acids, or other manipulation of the wine, all of which can be done in a wine deemed ‘organic’. The Coturri winery is a small production family run outfit- 3rd and 4th generation Coturri’s manage the vineyards, pick the grapes, and unlike just about everyone else, make the wine- no consultants, no lab technicians,  just farmers making wine.

Their wine-making processes are all gentle, all-natural small production methods; a small basket press is all they have- oh so gentle compared to the huge modern horizontal press. Open redwood fermentation tanks are covered with clean cloth and punched down by hand. The fermentation takes place over ten days to two weeks using ambient yeast with no effort at temperature control. Coturri has their own cooperage, using reconditioned old barrels to make 60 gallon barrels- weirdly small- then they constantly rack the wine, moving from barrel to barrel, finally bottling the wine unfiltered and unfined by hand, even hand labeling the bottles. A huge task mitigated by the fact that the entire production of this wine is tiny. 350 cases puny.

Oh yeah, now for the real weirdness; this zin is made from botrytised grapes and comes in at 16.2% abv. Now I know just last week, we UnCorkers were complaining about monstrous wines, but this isn’t one of those- this stuff is pure, natural wine goodness. Dark and rich, beguiling aromas of dark, sweet fruit waft from the glass- tons of glycerin coat the palate. There are exotic savory spices, raisins and some odd notes of apricot and cantalope melon. It’s a bit porty in that way that screams for blue cheese(just like a Sauterne), and weirdly, the Coturri family were kind enough to sell this for less then $25.

74% Zinandel, with petite sirah, carignane, and a bit of grenache and mataro(mouvedre)
Very youthful and fruity with a super grapey sappy aroma that really jumps out of the glass. Soft and medium weight on the palate with vanilla and notes of cream. This is a nice entry level effort from Ridge, though it lacks the personality of their single vineyard bottlings, it is nonetheless a polished wine and a great value, and its drinking great right now.

This vintage contains grapes from nine Sonoma vineyards and spends 11 months on new American oak.  Sometimes reported as Ridge’s only blended offering, this is not exactly true.   Even Ridge’s single vineyard offerings are notable as having a “field blend,” where each vineyard has a unique and characteristic blend of different vines.

$15-$22 Widely Available