2012 Sky Old Vine Zinfandel, Napa Valley

Lore Olds put the first Zinfandel vines into the ground on the Sky property in 1972. These old vines have seen their fair share of tragedy in the years since, surviving fire, drought and plenty of winter storms. But the death blow came in 2017 when, save for a half-acre, the original block was wiped out by the devastating fires that tore through the region. The precious juice from what few vines survived now goes into the regular Zinfandel. Sky didn’t make an Old Vine Zinfandel in the intervening years, so this is the swansong of a historically significant block from a unique site and a great year. 

After a tough season in 2011, 2012 saw a return to regular transmission with warm and sunny conditions, producing a bountiful crop of beautifully ripe and structured fruit on Mount Veeder. The winemaking is little or no different from the Estate Zinfandel (above), so what you get over and above those wines is the deep-rooted complexity and engaging bottle-aged characters from four rows of dry-farmed St. George rootstock old-vine Zinfandel.

Zinfandel’s ability to adapt to its place is highly prized amongst California’s old guard. With a decade in bottle, the variety has faded into the background, revealing a sweet, elegant, stony and savoury wine of terroir—almost classical Bordeaux-weighted—that is hard to stop sipping. Each sniff and sip reveal something evocative and new. At the same time, the wine’s svelte, braided tannin and mass of bright acidity provide a fine canvas for the wine’s procession of mellow raspberry, resin, earth, black tea and spiced meat notes. In a word: compelling.
 
This year’s label is a photograph of a redwood carving of a dragon, taken by Lore’s daughter, Mayacamas. Lore has been creating these kinds of pieces for 60 years and loved the photo depiction of the work. “The dragon is the hero and survives all the battles.”