2001, 2002, 2004 A. Rafanelli Dry Creek Zinfandel

The wine is a deep purple-colored which offers a bouquet of black fruits, minerals, and licorice. Superbly concentrated and full-bodied, this powerful wine manages to retain an overall sense of grace and balance.

The Rafanelli family is now in its fourth generation of growing grapes and making wine in the Dry Creek Valley. Their winery is small and family operated with a focus on quality over quantity. At A. Rafanelli Winery, they work hard at maintaining a tradition of producing premium grapes and handcrafting world class wines. They believe that the wines are first made in the vineyard and then achieve their maximum potential through traditional winemaking practices such as open top fermentation and non-filtration.  Our quaint and rustic winery sits on a knoll overlooking the scenic Dry Creek Valley and is surrounded by some of our terraced hillside vineyards. The winery consistently specializes in some of the finest Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot.

Zinfandel was introduced to California during the Gold Rush somewhere between 1852 and 1857 and became widely planted because it thrived so well in the state's climate and soil. Today, Zinfandel is the third leading winegrape variety in California, with nearly 49,891 acres planted, according to the 2009 California Grape Acreage Report. A majority of the grapes are used for White Zinfandel, which holds a 10% share of the total 188 million cases of California table wine volume shipped to the U.S. Red Zinfandel accounts for more than a 2% share of this total volume. Popular descriptors for Zinfandel wine include blackberry, raspberry, boysenberry, cherry, as well as black pepper, cloves, anise and herbs.

Dry Creek produces some of California's finest Zins and A. Rafanelli is one of the top vineyards for producing year in and year out high quality Zinfandel.  This is a great opportunity to compare and contrast three different years of wine from the same vineyard.  So invite some friends over this summer, get some tri-tip on the grill and open up all three bottles and have your own Zin wine tasting experience.