As the 2025 vintage begins to settle in bottles and on shelves, a fascinating narrative is unfolding in the world of American wine. While trends come and go, one category continues to command profound respect from sommeliers and collectors alike: old-vine Zinfandel. These gnarled, historic vines, many dating back over half a century or more, produce wines of unparalleled depth, complexity, and a tangible sense of place. Here, we explore the top-rated old-vine Zinfandels of the 2025 release, wines that are not just beverages, but liquid history. The Allure of Ancient Vines

Posted on October 5, 2025

What separates an old-vine Zinfandel from its younger counterparts? The answer lies beneath the soil. As Zinfandel vines age, their root systems plunge deeper, seeking water and nutrients far below the surface. This struggle for survival results in lower yields of smaller, highly concentrated berries. The resulting wine is inherently more structured, complex, and mineral-driven, with a balance that younger vines simply cannot replicate. These venerable plants, often head-trained and dry-farmed, tell a story of California’s viticultural heritage in every glass.

The 2025 Top-Rated Selections

The 2025 vintage has been widely praised for its ideal growing conditions—a long, moderate season with consistent sunshine and cool nights. This allowed for perfect phenolic ripeness, preserving the vibrant acidity that is so crucial to great Zinfandel. Our top-rated selections exemplify this perfect storm of heritage and ideal vintage.

1. Ridge Vineyards, Lytton Springs (Dry Creek Valley)

A perennial benchmark, the 2025 Lytton Springs is a masterful blend primarily of Zinfandel from 120-year-old vines, co-fermented with Petite Sirah and Carignane. It presents a stunningly complex nose of brambly blackberry, crushed peppercorn, and dark chocolate. On the palate, it is both powerful and elegant, with firm, polished tannins and a finish that seems to last for minutes. This is a wine built for the cellar, yet impossibly seductive in its youth.

2. Turley Wine Cellars, Hayne Vineyard (Napa Valley)

Sourced from one of Napa’s most iconic Zinfandel parcels, planted in 1903, Turley’s 2025 Hayne Vineyard bottling is a legend. It captures the essence of old-vine intensity with a cascade of ripe boysenberry, licorice, and exotic spice. Despite its profound concentration, the wine is remarkably light on its feet, showcasing a purity of fruit and a silky texture that is the hallmark of a truly great site and a skilled winemaker.

3. Bedrock Wine Co., Old Vine (Sonoma Valley)

Morgan Twain-Peterson MW is a champion of California’s heritage vineyards, and his 2025 “Old Vine” cuvée is a spectacular testament to that mission. A field blend from over 30 vineyards averaging 80+ years in age, this wine is a kaleidoscope of flavor. Notes of red plum, cherry cola, cedar, and earth unfold in layers. It is juicy, vibrant, and profoundly complex, offering incredible value and a panoramic view of Sonoma’s old-vine landscape.

4. Carlisle Winery, Papera Ranch (Russian River Valley)

From a vineyard planted in 1934, Carlisle’s 2025 Papera Ranch Zinfandel is a wine of stunning perfume and grace. It leans into a more red-fruited profile, with explosive aromas of raspberry, rose petal, and citrus zest. The palate is bright and energetic, framed by bright acidity and supple tannins. This Zinfandel is a beautiful expression of the cooler Russian River Valley terroir, emphasizing finesse over sheer power.

Tasting and Pairing Notes

These top-rated Zinfandels share a common thread of balance. They are not the overly jammy, high-alcohol caricatures of the past. The 2025 vintage showcases wines with ripe fruit core, yes, but also with vibrant acidity, savory characteristics, and refined tannic structure.

Perfect Pairings: Their robust character makes them ideal partners for grilled and roasted meats. Think classic barbecue ribs with a smoky sauce, herb-rubbed leg of lamb, or a rich wild mushroom risotto. The spice notes in these Zins also make them a surprisingly good match for moderately spicy Asian cuisine, like Szechuan beef or Korean barbecue.

A Vintage to Savor and Collect

The 2025 old-vine Zinfandels represent a high-water mark for this noble grape. They are wines that honor the past while speaking clearly of a brilliant present. For the enthusiast seeking wines with soul, story, and sublime structure, these top-rated bottles are not just recommendations—they are essential drinking. Secure your allocations; these are the heritage wines of tomorrow.

Famous Chardonnay Back ahead

Posted on December 24, 2021

Famous Chardonnay Back on Top

Chardonnay is a thousand years of age tiny town in Mâconnais in the southern section of France’s burgundy region. The well-known a glass of wine Chardonnay most likely stemmed here as well as was then spread out throughout France by the monks. The earliest tape-recorded recommendation to Chardonnay takes place in 1330 when Cistercian monks developed stonewalls around their ‘Clos de Vougeot’ winery solely planted to Chardonnay grapes. There is one more theory that factors towards Lebanon when it pertains to the origins of Chardonnay, but with no composed referrals. An additional direction indicate an Austrian creeping plant extremely similar to Chardonnay, called Morillon. The name Morillon has actually been made use of during the center Ages around Wine red and also was an old name for Chardonnay around Chablis.

Murray Tyrrell from Australia changed the program of background for Chardonnay by bringing the HVD winery in 1982. Chardonnay is one of the most extensively grown variety in Australia and additionally in NZ. There is more Chardonnay than Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz.

Lately Chardonnay has become a common women name and has actually had a terrible press beginning with the ABC (Anything Yet Chardonnay) activity. Movie critics are making case of Riesling as well as various other individuals are discovering Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc or Viognier worth drinking. However Chardonnay constantly makes far better wines in a larger series of environments than any other white selection. It is additionally in charge of the bulk of the world’s finest whites.

Chardonnay is a vigorous, heavy cropping selection with medium sized bunches. Bunches have securely loaded berries creating a solitary cluster not like loosely spaced Shiraz bunches. A ripe Chardonnay berry is gold yellow in colour with lots of juice. Berries are small, fragile, thin-skinned and require treatment throughout harvest to avoid oxidization. Chardonnay is really conscious winemaking methods. Cool climate Chardonnay generates an abundance of fruit flavours. The warmer climate Chardonnays may have much less of the fruits yet establish remarkable honey, butterscotch, buttery and nutty oily flavours that really fill up the mouth. The fad of fermenting Chardonnay in oak barrels and also after that storing it in brand-new oak can eliminate the fruit characters. You understand there’s excessive oak when all you obtain is vanilla as well as cinnamon and also no fresh fruit.

The new around the world wine makers have actually boosted the quality and also level of acidity by sourcing grapes from cooler climates such as Marlborough (New Zealand), Russian River (California), Yarra Valley and also Mornington Peninsula (Australia), Constantia and also Pedestrian Bay (South Africa), Casablanca and also Leyda (Chile), and Agrelo and the Uco Valley (Argentina). This doesn’t mean that Burgundy is forgotten. Whites from Chablis, the Côte Chalonnaise as well as the Mâconnais are very great worth.

Chardonnay is back ahead and as Tim Atkin, in a Viewer’s short article recommends “He had more exciting Chardonnays in the previous 12 months than in the previous 12 years.”