Zepaltas Wines

So we spent an afternoon with my fellow winemakers Kevin Kelley & Justin Lattanzio tasting our wines from the last 3 vintages at the W.E.Bottoms Vineyard. We got together with the owners of the Vineyard to discuss & review the state of the vineyard. We tasted, talked and discussed all of the ways that we can improve farming, and make better wines.

We started off tasting the 2005 version from Zepaltas, Lattanzio & Salinia. The 2005s were hitting on all cylinders and they are entering their windows of drinkability. All of the wines definitely reflected the vintage, but it was interesting to see what each winemaker came up with. 2005 was clearly a great vintage in the Russian River Valley. All of our wines share the same vineyard profile, and the power of 2005 was evident. This vintage should be remembered in our minds as one of the best.

On to the "controversial" (well maybe not controversial, but lots of debate on) 2006 vintage. it was a year of higher yields in the Valley. Clusters were larger, the growing season was nice and cool like 2005, but with the added yields i don't think that fruit in general was allowed to ripen evenly. I don't think that flavors, sugars and tannins crossed the finish line all at the same time. The resulting wines are in no way bad wines, I think they are very underrated. They are pretty, floral and petite. It is debatable whether 2006 pinots will improve with age or should be drank sooner rather that later. Part of me thinks that the wines will be neat as old wines-7 years plus to ponder and go with food. The acid, pH numbers tell us that they should be stable wines, but is the power of flavor there? All of the wines from the 3 of us were neat wines, but they probably will not turn the heads that 2005 did, but who knows?

We tasted our 2007s last. For obvious reasons they tasted "young." The wines have been in bottle just 5 months so they have not completely regrouped yet. I believe that the framework is there for these wines to be as good or if not better than the 2005s. Great acidity, great depth of flavor, and much more complex. I am noticing that i get more 'minerality" in the flavor profile than in years past. I will say that the zepaltas version will need a while to come together, but overall i am very pleased.

We had deep discussion with the owners as we tasted the wines. We are on the same page for going fully organic in the vineyard. We believe this site can only get better at producing amazing fruit, and we all look forward to the next vintage.