The 2021 Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard Zinfandel shows concentrated blackberry, black cherry, and anise aromas and flavors, along with black tea and silky chocolate notes on the finish. This vineyard consistently produces wines that are dense and concentrated with texture and power.
The 100+ year old Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard is located on seven acres along a slight rise off Wood Road in the Russian River Valley AVA of Sonoma County. It is dry-farmed and has been hand-tended by the Fanucchi family for over 40 years. The vineyard is head trained, but Peter Fanucchi raised the gnarled old vines from just above ground level to chest height. This modification seems to provide greater sun exposure and air circulation and to have reinvigorated the old vines, enhancing the production of high-quality, old-vine fruit.
The soils on Wood Road are sandy loam of relatively low pH and fertility. Old vines on these soils produce small Zinfandel berries with bright, concentrated cherry and blackberry fruit flavors. At optimum ripeness, the fruit makes a big, intense, long-lived Zinfandel of unique personality.
Deep purple with pink highlights, the 2021 Zinfandel Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard is highly aromatic in its floral perfume of candied violets, pink peppercorn, and black and blue berries. Full-bodied, with a meatiness to its texture, ripe tannins, and a fleshly mouthfeel, the palate is full of notes of dark black cherry as well as a plummy black inkiness and a hint of dark soil.