Broc Cellars White Zinfandel 2020

VARIETAL: 100% Zinfandel

LOCATION: Sonoma Valley + Mendocino

VINEYARD: 95% Arrowhead Mountain Vineyard + 5% Ricetti Vineyard

ALCOHOL: 12%

TOTAL PRODUCTION: 460 cases

WINEMAKER’S NOTES:
If you don’t know the history of White Zinfandel at Broc, it’s a fun story to tell. Chris has been working with the Zinfandel vines at Arrowhead Mountain Vineyard since 2004. The vineyard is steep and the top of the vineyard gets a lot of sun throughout the day. We pick the grapes early so they don’t get too much sun exposure since the Zinfandel grape is very thin skinned. Those grapes don’t make it into our Vine Starr, but it’s really nice fruit to make a delicious rosé. We decided to call it White Zinfandel at our first release because of its high acidity but softer palate. It started out as a tongue in cheek reference that we have embraced and now it’s a perennial fan favorite. The story of this wine is a happy surprise — perfect for a summer out of doors.

In the cellar, after the Arrowhead grapes arrived, we foot stomped whole cluster and left the grapes to macerate for 4 hours. Then we pressed into stainless tank where it fermented for 10 days and transferred to our 4400 liter stainless tank for 8 months. The Ricetti Vineyard’s Zinfandel was brought in and made as a light red wine, whole cluster. The small amount added to the Arrowhead base gives the wine its structure.

VITICULTURAL AREA:
Arrowhead Mountain Vineyard has iron rich soil and is located just above the town of Sonoma. They farm using no chemicals, pesticides, herbicides or sulfur. Ricetti Vineyard, located in Mendocino County, is Certified Organic.

At Broc Cellars all of our wines are made using spontaneous fermentation, a process that means we only use native yeasts and bacteria that exist on the grapes in order to make wine. We don’t add anything – this includes nutrients, yeast, bacteria, enzymes, tannins or other popular fermentation agents. Sulphur is a naturally occurring element in all wine, the amount found can vary. We add little to no S02, depending on the wine and style.