Harvest Moon Zinfandel Russian River Valley 2005  750ml $42.00   Your Shopping Cart: Join one of the Harvest Moon Wine Clubs and save up to 30% on wines!

Vintage & Varietal

Varietal: 100% Zinfandel
Vintage: 2005
Produced: 615 cases of 750 ml. Blended and set in tank for 1 month and bottled June 2007.
Residual Sugar: less than .07 g/100 ml
Alcohol: 14.5%; Ph: 3.42

Grower & Winemaker's Notes

Our 2005 Russian River Valley Zin is grown by Harvest Moon and neighbors on Olivet and Piner Roads.  This is a local Russian River Valley wine. It grew, fermented and aged for 14 months in mostly maure barrels all within a few miles of the Estate. This wine will taste its best from late 2007 and will continue possibly for the next decade.

Tasting Notes

This blend of Zinfandel showcases classic Russian River Valley Zin with dusty dark-fruit aromas, a medium mouth feel and a medley of dark cherries and tart ripe raspberries intertwined with just the right amount of toasty wood on the finish

Update: Tasting Notes by Randy June 9th, 2009

The 2005 vintage for our Zins was a relatively tannic and structured. Expecting a cool down in early September, we entered into the vineyards in late August and pulled more leaves than normal on the afternoon side of the rows in order to expose the ripening bunches to the sun after the fog burned off. When actually thanks to the inaccuracy of the local weather folk, we didn’t get a cool down rather a slight warm up, thus thickening the skins (in order to protect the juice from the hot sun) which increases tannin and color compounds in the grapes and ultimately more structure in the future wine.

Nearly two full years after bottling, this wine is beginning to release its story. By far the darkest brew yet to come out of our cellar, this vintage of neighborhood zin took a full 30 minutes being opened and in glass before the rich clovy spice and dark leathery fruit gushed out of above the rim of my big bowled burgundy glass. The dusty, dried fruit aromas are still present just a bit more integrated. On the entrance, the wine fills the mouth, slightly gripping around the edges from the fuzzy tannins. There’s a juiciness now that I don’t recall when it was bottled, further strengthening my premise that wines that go into the bottle “tart” or high in acids settle down and become mouthwateringly juicy eventually. The judicious use of the 20% new Radaux hybrid American and French barrels is still independent of the fruit and spice leading me to the conclusion this wine needs another two to four years in bottle before sparks fly immediately from the bottle. In the meantime decant and your table will have happy smiles around. We ended up pairing the second half of the bottle with an endive, cream cheese chicken chutney dish and it was quite nice! Fewer than 25 cases remain under lock and key.