Frog's Leap Zinfandel 2019
No wine is more beloved, more treasured, more celebrated or more often drank at Frog’s Leap than Zinfandel. Zinfandel has been made at Frog's Leap since their inception and they take enormous pleasure in opening bottles dating back 20 or even 30 years...and they are still glorious in their development. But let us be clear, we are talking about the Frog's Leap kind of Zinfandel! Frog’s Leap Zinfandel: balanced, restrained, nuanced, subtle, and almost always under 14% alcohol. If you are looking for a Zin to serve with wooly mammoth, or to put hair on your chest, you’ve come to the wrong place. Those styles are for lesser vineyards and less seasoned winemaking. To make Zinfandel in the highest form takes great attention to detail in the growing, a constant vigilance during harvest and great care in the cellar. The secret to Frog’s Leap Zinfandels (once you get past the 40 year old dry farmed, perfectly situated vineyards) is that at the same time they harvest the Zinfandel they also harvest plantings of Petite Sirah, Carignan, and Valdique and ferment them all in the same tank at the same time. This allows them to get the Zinfandel grapes fully ripe, full of sugar and flavour and then using the other less sweet varietals to add colour, flavour nuance while they reduce the overall alcohol content. Aged for 14 months in primarily American oak (very little new), the wine gains its strength through complexity and character rather than brute alcoholic strength. You will be tempted to drink this wine while it is in its youthful, delicious phase - and this is a temptation that you should give in to. However, as Frog's Leap have been asserting for four decades, their Zinfandels are crafted for the cellar, and have the natural acidity and moderate alcohols that will provide great reward for those with the patience to hold on to a few bottles. With the 2019 vintage yielding an especially powerful wine, we hope you take their advice!
