Turley Buck Cobb Zinfandel Amador County 2020

Description

Turley Wine Cellars is a second-generation family winery that has the reputation for producing the finest Zinfandels in California from small parcels of extremely old, dry-farmed vines. Larry Turley with his director of winemaking, Tegan Passalacqua, continue to produce a fantastic range of wines from some of California’s oldest, head pruned, dry-farmed Zinfandel vineyards. Along with Larry’s daughters, they have managed to persuade the owners of some of California’s finest old vineyards to let them take total control of viticulture; farming organically, reducing yields to extremely low levels and picking earlier to retain acidity. All wines are fermented using only indigenous yeasts. The wines are matured for 12-15 months in 80% French, 20% American oak, (10-20% new) and bottled unfined and unfiltered.

Planted at 1500 ft on the volcanic, granitic hillside of our property in Plymouth, Amador County. The Cobb Vineyard Zinfandel is an homage to “Buck” Cobb from whom we purchased the vineyard and the Karly property in Amador. We even added a little bi-plane symbol to the label to commemorate Buck’s time as an aerobatic pilot! The rocky conditions and more extreme weather (including snow) in this dry-farmed vineyard make for a hearty, robust Zinfandel.

The 2020 Zinfandel Buck Cobb Vineyard stands out in this range for its aromatic intensity and midweight structure. In 2020, winemaker Tegan Passalacqua excluded Alicante and Mourvèdre from the blend, which likely explains the wine's gracious personality. Sweet red cherry fruit, rose petal, mint, cedar and cinnamon all grace this wonderfully expressive Zinfadel from Turley. There is a bit of underlying grittiness in the tannin, but that is one of the signatures of the year. Drink 2024 – 2034. 92pts Antonio Galloni, Vinous