2021 Danny's Zinfandel

Tasting Notes: 

Julia Child was never concerned about using organic ingredients. Generally, what mattered was the ratio of butter to every other ingredient. A teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of butter. Half a cup of stock, two cups of butter, and so on. But Danny's Zinfandel is plainly concerned with organic ingredients because the grapes harvested from vines in Dry Creek Valley are farmed organically. The ratio of most concern is your pleasure from this wine multiplied by pie (not Pi), but pie, as in the cherry pie aromatics, pie crust spices, and soft, gently sweet tannins that are nuanced by wild herbs and maybe even a hint of licorice. Butter up your palate with this easy quaffer.

Appellation Notes: Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County AVA

Here’s the thing you need to know about Sonoma County: While it is roughly an hour north of San Francisco, encompassing a vast area of crazy mixed-up soils amidst valleys, hills, and coastal plains, Sonoma County is NOT an AVA itself. Sorry. However, it contains…(drum roll)....19 AVAs within its boundaries! Spanning 76 miles of the California coast from Annapolis and Cloverdale in the north to Petaluma, Sonoma, and Carneros in the south, the region is home to more than 425 wineries, according to the internet. We did not attempt to count them. We enjoy the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines from here, as well as more structured and sophisticated Cabernet Sauvignon wines (they don’t shout as loudly as Cabernet from neighboring Napa County), and also Zinfandel, Merlot, and Syrah. The region's unique terroir is insanely complicated. If you want to know more about the soils and climate, we suggest you enroll in classes at U.C. Davis. Wikipedia entries are not to be trusted.