2012 Three Wine Company Zinfandel Live Oak Contra Costa County 750 ml

The Razing of Live Oak Vineyard
… Pre-Phylloxera Zinfandel

On the world’s wine trails, healthy hundred-year-old vines are seen as a natural art form, responsible for many of the most sought-after bottles in the world. Why? These often-ornery-looking, gnarly plants have been burrowing meters underground for a century, seeking out prized water reserves in the mineral substrata — reserves that younger vines simply can’t get to.

While yields tend to be tiny — no more than a single cluster per shoot — the few clusters that make it to the crusher are infused with magical concentration and otherworldly complexity. While there are hundreds of acres of 100-year-old vineyards in the south of France, an aphid-like pest called Phylloxera ravaged most of California’s ancient plantings in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The few that remain were planted on sandy soils where the pests couldn’t survive, spots like the Delhi sand beachheads of Contra Costa County. These vineyards are an integral part of California’s rich viticultural history. As a result, no one of healthy mind would ever consider ripping them out. At least that’s what Matt Cline thought before he got the call about the razing of Live Oak.

In 2005, eight of 10 acres of what many believe to be the most extraordinary 120-year-old Zinfandel vineyard in California were laid to waste by a few Caterpillars on a dreary Tuesday morning. Cline, who had been fashioning staggeringly concentrated, boysenberry-packed Zinfandel from Live Oak for two decades, sat in his truck and watched the carnage.

We’d been allocated a few dozen cases of Cline’s Three Zinfandel “Live Oak” in both the 2010 and 2011 vintages. Not surprisingly, each release wowed buyers, drawing rave reviews and earning 97 perfect 5-star ratings. But with the release of this absolutely extravagant 2012, from what Robert Parker called that “flamboyant” vintage, Cline has not only resuscitated Live Oak Vineyard, he may well have crafted the most extraordinary ancient-vine Zinfandel since Bill Clinton lived on Pennsylvania Avenue.

As has been reported by nearly every critical publication, the 2012 growing season was one of the most extraordinary in Napa Valley history, a vintage of great quality and quantity. The same was true just an hour south in Contra Costa.

“Zinfandel is temperamental,” Matt told us as we sipped the wildly concentrated, fabulously juicy 2012 “Live Oak” in Napa. “Typically, on the same bunch you have ripe grapes, green grapes, and raisins. But 2012 was different. The summer was warm, but not too warm. There were no heat spikes, so no blistering or desiccation. Usually at harvest, we’re working furiously by the sorting table. In the fall of 2012, we could have shut the table down. The clusters were perfectly even, perfectly ripe.”

The 2012 Three Zinfandel “Live Oak” is vivid purple/ruby. The aromas alone are well worth the price of admission, a cornucopia of wild blueberry, boysenberry, violets, and graphite. Rich, juicy, and polished on the attack — without any note of port-like or raisiny flavors — the core features a voluptuous mix of blackberry and black raspberry preserves, finishing with superb low-pH persistence and vibrancy. Drink now or do as we’re doing and lay down this historic 127-year-old-vine Zinfandel for a decade. It could use the shuteye.

$34 on release. $20 today exclusively on WineAccess. Shipping included on 4.