Late Label, Old Craving
TASTING NOTES: “This wine is a sensory delight with its enticing characteristics. On the nose, it exudes a delightful combination of brightness and earthiness, offering captivating notes of cherry cola and blackberry pie. Upon sipping, the wine impresses with its remarkable intensity and structural depth, unveiling a silky, dense fruitiness that caresses the palate. The tasting experience continues to evolve with nuances of dark chocolate shavings, star anise, and raspberry, leading to a rich and lingering finish enhanced by a subtle dusting of spice. Pair it with grilled steaks or spicy marinated lamb kebobs for a harmonious culinary match or savor it alongside aged gouda or pasta dishes featuring a meaty tomato ragù for a splendid culinary experience. Planted in 1926, these vineyard blocks are some of the oldest in the Dry Creek Valley and farmed by fourth generation Saini family members. The Seghesio and Saini families have a long and rich history of working together over four generations. Our Saini Farms Zinfandel is sourced mainly from old vine blocks planted on the Dry Creek bench, which is composed of gravelly clay loam with a striking red color and exceptional drainage that stresses the vines, encouraging concentration and structure in the resulting wine.” (AbV 15%, pH 3.91, TA 5.6 grams/liter)
VARIETALS: 100% Zinfandel
BARRELS: Not specified.
PAIRS WITH: N/A
THAT REMINDS ME OF: Cherry cola — half of this wine’s “cherry cola and blackberry pie” descriptor.
Cherry-flavored cola existed as a specific, requestable thing for something like sixty years before any company actually sold it in a can. Soda fountains in the early 1900s kept bottles of cherry syrup on hand specifically so a soda jerk could squirt a shot into your Coca-Cola on request — it wasn’t a secret menu item, it was just Tuesday. Coca-Cola the corporation didn’t officially launch “Cherry Coke” until 1985, which means for most of the 20th century the flavor lived entirely in the gap between what a company sold and what a guy behind a counter was willing to do for a nickel.
Cheerwine, if you’ve never encountered it, skipped the middleman entirely — a North Carolina company just bottled cherry cola outright starting in 1917 and has been selling it as its own thing for over a hundred years, decades before the big brand caught up to what people already wanted. Sometimes the flavor invents itself at the counter, and the label just shows up late to agree.
