Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/17414
up to smaller berries, looser bunches, higher quality tannins and generally higher acids.” Translated to finished wines, according to Mauritson, “Rockpile Zins feel different in the mouth; there is plenty of body and beautifully ripe flavors without pruniness, raisining, or a fat, heavy, high-alcohol feel.” Assumption of terroir-related sensations is also common to virtually all vintners who work the Rockpile. “The chain of similarity I’ve always found in wines from Rockpile has been in structure and a strong sense of minerality, like crushed rocks,” says Jeff Cohn, who makes ultra-rich Rockpile Syrahs under his JC Cellars label. “Can anyone say a flavor in a wine comes from a soil, through a vine’s root system? Who’s to say? We can certainly taste the difference between Cornas, Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie, and we attribute the differences to the soil. Wherever this minerality comes from—whether through the roots, the leaves or from micro- particles of dust in the air—we have to say that it’s part of Rockpile. It has a true sense of place.” Zin & Beyond Other significant, and highly recommended, pro- ducers of Rockpile Zinfandel include Branham Estate Wines, Bella Vetta and Ulises Valdez’s Valdez Family label. You can also look forward to extraordinary first releases (2009s) from Sbragia Family Vineyards, driven by Napa Valley legend Ed Sbragia, now settled in with his family at the end of Dry Creek Road just before it rises up towards the Rockpile AVA, and from Napa Valley’s esteemed Robert Biale Vineyards. But Rockpile is about more than Zinfandel. JC Cellars’ Rockpile Syrahs definitely rule (second to none in California), and Branham, Carol Shelton and Mauritson produce stellar Petite Sirahs, the latter never really oversized or ultra-ripe in Rockpile, yet as black, iron-pumping and pepper-grinder intense as they come. Also notably, both Paradise Ridge and Stryker Sonoma produce probably the finest, sleekest, most sinewy bottlings of varietal Petit Verdot in the state. Stryker Sonoma’s Rockpile-grown Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot tend to toe a moderately scaled, refined line, and have been lauded for precisely that. On the other hand, Mauritson’s opulent, mountainous “Buck Pasture” (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot) is a graphic example of the huge potential of Bordeaux grapes in the AVA. Do not pass these alternatives by! october 2010 / the tasting panel / 49 Kent Rosenblum.