The Kook is made from hand-picked organic Zinfandel grapes that are sourced from the 100-year-old Lopez Ranch Vineyard in Rancho Cucamonga. This ancient dry-farmed, head-trained vineyard is one of the early vineyards planted in California and is one of the oldest in California that is still producing. Cucamonga is a historical region that was home to more grapevines than Napa and Sonoma throughout the 1920s and into Prohibition. It is a hot climate with sandy soils that produce rich, jammy fruit characters with distinctive earthiness. Many of the old vineyards have been ripped out to make way for strip malls, tract homes, and warehouses. The vines that still exist are surrounded by freeways and development.
We began making this wine in 2009 and have built a relationship with the grower that allows us to harvest the fruit earlier – so while in the past, this wine has skewed towards a jammier, compote flavor profile, this 12th vintage is fresher and more floral. For this wine, the fermentation was on skins for 14 days and punched down 1-3 times every day. The wine was pressed and matured in old French oak barrels.
Wine is always changing, but at bottling, the Kook is plummy and medium-bodied with wild berries, white flowers, kaffir lime leaf, and thyme, and has a rich, fruity palate that’s dry in tannins.
