With Fall just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about heartier reds and fuller-bodied California classics. The somewhat cooler weather this week in Los Angeles saw our wine team dipping into new expressions from some of our favorite in-state producers and no wine impressed us more, dollar for dollar, than the new 2021 vintage of the Dashe Vineyard Select Zinfandel at $17.99.
For the uninitiated, Dashe Cellars is a husband and wife winemaking team of Michael and Anne Dashe, whose combined 40-plus years of experience at Château Lafite-Rothschild, Ridge Vineyards, Cloudy Bay, Far Niente, Chappellet, and Schramsberg Wine Cellars should immediately grab your attention. Drawing on this wealth of experience, the Dashes create vineyard-focused wines that capture the complexity and character of top vineyards throughout Sonoma County and beyond. The wines are usually organic, biodynamic, or sustainably farmed at the very minimum. With a focus on older vines, steep hillside locations, rocky soils and stressful growing conditions, they work closely with their growers to ensure careful vineyard management and low yields.
The Dashe’s experience working at Ridge stood out to me when tasting the new 2021 Vineyard Select Zinfandel because it's absolutely reminiscent of Ridge Zinfandel. It has the same elegance and concentration, along with a similarly-styled blend of 78% Zinfandel, 15% Teroldego, 7% Tannat, each fermented separately before assemblage. If you even remotely like Zinfandel, you owe it to yourself to try this bottle. Due to fires in Northern California over the last two growing seasons, it’s the first time this wine has been made since 2018, so the demand is high.
With most stores in California at $24.99, Mission’s price of $17.99 is fantastic. You’re getting top quality organic fruit, curated and blended by two masters, aged 14 months in French Oak, for less than $20 a bottle. It’s a juicy and supple Zinfandel, but with ample structure and complete grace: dark red berries, hints of richness front the oak, but restrained at 14% ABV.
Again: think Ridge Zinfandel, but for less than half the price.
-David Driscoll