85% Carignan and 15% Zinfandel, from the two oldest blocks in this great vineyard.
The winery says:
Run by 5th generation farmers, Testa Vineyards sits just west of the Russian River at the base of the Redwood Valley AVA in Mendocino. This wine is a blend of the two oldest and adjacent blocks on the property. Over 85-year-old, bush grown carignan and zinfandel grow on a south east facing slope in Yakayo sandy-loam soil. These soils consist of deep, well drained soils formed in material weathered from old alluvium from sedimentary rock. The carignan was lightly foot tread and fermented whole-cluster in open top containers, while the zinfandel was destemmed and ferment in a 1 ton open top wood fermenter, pumped over twice daily until dry. Wine was aged in a mix of used French and Hungarian barrique for 1 year before blending and bottling. This wine draws inspiration from this historic site, and the classic California field blends common to the Italian farming families that developed the Mendocino Valley in the early 1900s. The combination of concentration from the old vines and whole cluster provide a rich structure and dark, dare we say evil character? Inspiring our first ever villain to the Iconic collection.
We named our winery Iconic because we aspire to establish a new benchmark for California wine: wine that is authentically Californian but more restrained than the “blockbuster” wines that became the norm in the 1990’s.
