2015 Trinitas Cellars Zinfandel El Dorado 750 ml

You don’t have to think too hard about clearing out room in your cellar for a wine like today’s 91-point 2015 Trinitas Zinfandel from the Sierra Foothills and its El Dorado sub-appellation. At $20.00, mission plums, blackberry jam, and dark chocolate nuances make this an easy-on-the-wallet drinking option. 

But if you’re still on the fence, just look at who else is mining the same ground in the Foothills: Andy Erickson (Favia, Harlan, Screaming Eagle) makes "Rompecabezas" from Amador County just below El Dorado. Marco Cappelli of Miraflores (formerly of Swanson) is producing Cabernet, Helen Keplinger (Bryant Family, Kenzo Estate) is making a red wine, and Philippe Melka is producing Andis Wines, all in the same region. 

100-point winemaker company is pretty good company if you ask us. It doesn’t get much better than that, but depending on your faith, it certainly goes higher. Founded in 2000 by Tim and Steph Busch, who regularly enjoy an audience with the Pope (who, rumor has it, enjoys his own stash of Trinitas wines), only further confirms that higher powers are not only behind wines from the Sierra Foothills but are enjoying them as well. 

Today, Trinitas winemaker Kevin Mills, a veteran of French and Canadian cellars, is turning out intensely flavored, finely delineated wines that hold up quite well in the cellar, and this Zinfandel is no exception. The region is anything but new. More than 150 years ago, the Gold Mines of California were bestowing new riches on a lucky few. The rest—those working the mines—grew grapes, but they weren’t planted in Napa Valley—it was El Dorado county, where Trinitas’ vines thrive today. From one of the best vintages in the Sierra Foothills in the last decade, this is a wine to enjoy now, and often and over the next several years.  

We can’t say whether a Pope’s blessing is the equivalent of a perfect score, but with 91 points from Wine Enthusiast for “smoky dark-fruit flavors” that are “supported by firm tannins and a framework of spicy oak,” it’s the kind of blessing Zinfandel lovers should be taking seriously.