|
|
Member Reviews:
 2007 Ottimino Vineyards Zinfandel
Excellent Zin. Especially at this price. Would buy again and highly recommend.
-- Brent from Abilene, KS
Old School
Classic zin, not over the top. I'm pleased, very good value.
-- Omar from Hartland, VT
Excellent Zin, with plenty of black, briary fruit and excellent texture. My husband grilled up some steaks, and this was the perfect compliment. Thank you!
-- Sherrie from Claymont, DE
 Finesse
more finesse than traditional zin
-- Jerry from Norwalk, CT
|
|
Hand-Plucked Zinfandel and Pio Biglieri
Bill Knuttel knew all about Pio Biglieri's five-acre oasis at the southern tip of the Dry Creek appellation where Russian River wields its cooling influences. Once a month, he took a drive on the 101 just to watch Pio hand pluck raisins from the head-trained vines -- an obsessive, labor intensive activity for which few growers still have the patience. Invariably, Bill would call out to Biglieri, just to shoot the breeze and to patiently -- without forcing the issue in any way -- plant a seed. After 20 minutes or so, Knuttel would see it was time to move on. Then he'd head back to the winery knowing that he'd wasted still another afternoon chasing a dream that had no shot of materializing.
"Up until 2005, all the Biglieri Zinfandel was sold to a large winery, where it was tossed into a fermenter with fruit from dozens of other vineyards. There just wasn't enough fruit for the winery to handle it differently. I thought it was sacrilege. But to Pio, it was just the way things had always been -- and the way it always would be."
But just before the 2005 harvest, Knuttel told us he got whiff of a rumor that was making its way up from the southern edge of the valley. Word had it that the winery was ratcheting back its Zinfandel purchases. Zin sales were softening. The growing season had been problematic. Lots of rain. More to come. Apparently, the winery was dropping contracts left and right and the smallest commitments would be the first to go. "When I heard that, I still didn't believe they'd cut off Biglieri. But what the heck? I jumped in the truck and took the most opportunistic drive of my career on the 101."
This time, Knuttel hadn't come to shoot the breeze. Pio was on his knees, clippers in hand. Zinfandel is notorious for its uneven set, and Biglieri was busy snipping off raisins from clusters that also sported perfectly proportioned berries. Knuttel called out and trekked up the row, but he was already disappointed. Biglieri's demeanor was the same as it had always been. If Pio had indeed lost the contract just weeks before harvest, why wasn't he on the phone trying to sell his fruit? Even more so, why would Pio be giving each vine a meticulous haircut, dropping fruit without a buyer?
As we tasted Knuttel's stunning 2007 Ottimino "Biglieri Zinfandel," the brilliant Zin-master just smiled and shook his head. "Who works like that any more? Pio HAD lost the contract. But, it was as if he didn't care. Everyone else was scrambling to find a new buyer. Pio just went back to his plants and kept doing what made him happy."
Bill knew Pio Biglieri was stuck with harvest just 10 days away. But as Knuttel eyeballed these manicured dry-farmed plants, beaming with health in a vintage that was problematic for many, Knuttel listened intently as Biglieri spoke not of the lost contract or the price he expected to be paid per ton. Instead, Pio talked about his plants, of the importance of removing every scorched raisin so that only the cleanest, purest, most succulent Zinfandel berries would make it to a crusher. Then, it was Knuttel's turn to do what no winemaker does any more. He asked to pay more.
Bill Knuttel's first vintage with Biglieri Zinfandel would be in 2005. He paid "roughly 40% more than Pio had been paid previously, but in the end, that was still cheap. I'd never seen anything like those Zinfandel clusters. There was nothing to do at the sorting table!" The 2006 was sensational. But it wouldn't be until the Indian summer of 2007 -- a harvest that Dry Creek Zin-makers still croon about -- that Knuttel put out a single vineyard Zinfandel from Pio Biglieri's 5 acres that would rank among the most lavishly sculpted of Sonoma.
Aged entirely in French cooperage for 20 months, with many new barrels custom made by Cloverdale cooper Keith Roberts, the 2007 Ottimino Zinfandel "Biglieri Vineyard" is deep purple in color. Explosive aromas of blackberry preserves and wild cherry, laced with spicy new oak cedar. Rich, powerful and fabulously juicy on the attack, a marvelous dark fruit mix of blackberries, boysenberry and ripe raspberry. Sleekly textured, smooth and round -- without even a hint of the candied, dried out elements that spoil so many Zins these days -- the tannins are smooth and beautifully integrated, perfectly bracketing all that black fruit opulence.
|
|
Tasting Notes
2007 Ottimino Vineyards Zinfandel Biglieri Vineyard Dry Creek Valley
"Aged entirely in French cooperage for 20 months, with many new barrels custom made by Cloverdale cooper Keith Roberts. Deep purple to the edge. Juicy aromas of blackberry preserves and wild cherry, laced with spicy new oak cedar. Rich and powerful on the attack, packed with a dark fruit mix of blackberries, boysenberry and ripe raspberry. Sleekly textured, smooth and round, with beautifully resolved tannins bracketing all that black fruit opulence. Drink now-2015."
-- WineAccess Travel Log
|
|
|
Cart