2019 Nalle Ranch Red Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County 750 ml

“These are some of the best wines coming out of California—and nobody knows about them!” enthused Elizabeth Schneider, host of the Wine for Normal People podcast, when she told us about Nalle. “You NEED to offer them.”

Wine Enthusiast has lauded Nalle as “world-class,” and the SF Chronicle named the estate among their “masters of old vines,” but the family-run winery still flies under the radar since many of their bottles never hit retail. That’s why we were so excited to get a small allocation of their ravishing, silky-tannined 2019 Ranch Red. 

An estate-grown, Zinfandel-based field blend crafted from 66- and 72-year-old vines, this inaugural bottling boasts the same kind of dry-farmed old-vine concentration that’s made Ridge, Bedrock, and Turley stylistic benchmarks of the region, plus an impressive level of restraint and elegance.

Cultivating vines on land that’s been in the family since 1917, Nalle specializes in elegant, moderate-alcohol expressions of California grapes. They’re located in the sweet spot of Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley, the AVA whose temperate warmth and loose, gravelly soils have made it the staging ground for some of the most decorated bottles from the giants of Sonoma. 

The Wall Street Journal’s Lettie Teague has called Nalle “one of my favorites,” and after one whiff of the 2019 Ranch Red you’ll see why. It’s got a heady bouquet of loganberry, blackberry, and blueberry, accented with cracked pepper and cigar-box depth. Extended maceration gives the wine weight and texture, and tangy berry flavors burst forth on entry, framed beautifully by firm tannins and oak notes from 11 months aging in 15% new French barrels. 

Nalle’s a secret to most—and a proud exclusive for Wine Access members.