Spring Wine Club Newsletter
February 18, 2026
In these challenging times for the grape and wine business, your support of small family farmers is appreciated! Thanks for joining our wine club.
The first shipment features the exciting 2023 vintage. The Zinfandel is classic zin, with spice, bright red fruit, a bit of new french oak, and as always, 20% Petite Sirah. The Petite is more drinkable right out of the gate than past vintages, softer yet still complex, velvety…each time I open a Petite Sirah, I find different flavors and aromas to enjoy. My goal with the wine club is to send you wines that are tasting best now, and to that end the 2021s are really hitting their stride. I don’t have any ’21 zin left, but the 2021 Petite Sirah is finally showing as a wonderfully finished wine. There are two ways of thinking about oak and big wines: one, a big wine can stand up to the oak, and the other, a big wine + new oak can result in a bit much tannin in the wine. My experience with Petite Sirah is leaning towards the latter…but the good news is that it just takes some time for the oak to integrate, and the result is a complex, age worthy wine. Read the tasting notes of professional reviewers here.
I’ve got some exciting wines coming your way in 2026. I brought a barrel sample of my 2024 30 Year Vines Field Blend to ZinEx last month, and it was one of the most talked about wines of the event. This is particularly gratifying, as it’s an example of wine made in the vineyard; myself heading out with the tractor on the morning of 9/21/24, a few workers in tow, stopping to pick a few boxes of grapes at some preferred Zinfandel blocks, (81%) Alicante Bouschet,(5%) and Petite Sirah,(14%). While many winemakers try to replicate the Zinfandel field blends of old, the results are usually hit and miss, as the three grape varieties don’t mature at the same time. And yet, there’s something about co-fermenting the grapes, rather than blending the wines later, that makes a richer wine, with better color and mouthfeel, when it works. When I saw how well this wine was tasting in the tank, and in barrel, I brought in my old friend and winemaker from way back in the Rosenblum days, Jeff Cohn, to make some barrel recommendations. With some absolutely beautiful new French oak, the wine is already tasting finished. I’ll be releasing this wine to wine club only later this spring.
I look forward to having you come out for a tasting at the vineyard some time. And if I can get the wine club to the point of having enough people out this way at the same time, we’ll start doing some wine club events as well. Thanks again for your support! — Jack.