Scar of the Sea, Old Vine Zinfandel Lopez Vineyard 2022
Regular price
$42.00
Sale
100% Zinfandel
Cucamonga Valley, California
VEGAN
Planted in 1918, 70 miles inland from Los Angeles and certified organic by CCOF, the Lopez vineyard is a genuine part of California history. Farmed today by the Galleano family, Mikey and Gina Giugni of Scar of the Sea consider themselves lucky to be able to make wine from this historic site. The vines are farmed without irrigation in granite rocks and sandy soil, surrounded by freeways and track homes, one of the last reminders of an older California. 50% whole-cluster fruit on the bottom and 50% destemmed grapes on top. The grapes began to ferment with native yeast a few days later, then punchdowns were given twice daily. The grapes fermented for four weeks. The wine was then drained and the grapes were pressed off in a two-ton wooden basket press. The wine was then transferred to neutral French oak barrels for aging on fine lees for eight months. The wine was racked for the first time to bottle. Unfined, unfiltered. One of the most stirring red wines ever bottled by Scar of the Sea, robust, earthen, evocative, dusty, while maintaining juicy fruit. Just everything that California should be.
Scar of the Sea was founded in 2012, but Mikey’s style as a winemaker has gone through deep explorations and many iterations since that beginning. Begun as a négoce project, as almost everything in California, Mikey has migrated from focusing on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at his beginnings to a much wider swath of vineyard-focused, personally-farmed sites on the Central Coast, now having landed with Gina for a permanent winemaking home in San Luis Obispo.
It's important to mention Mikey and Gina’s farming, in particular, given that Mikey has stated that for many years they’ve been hoping and striving toward moving toward a vigneron model. They’ve understood together that being able to control the farming yourselves on a vineyard site just changes so much the expression of the fruit, what is possible in each site in terms of quality and energy.