The Wine Bloging Wednesday Singles Night theme led me to pull out a bottle from a favorite winery: Quivira in the Dry Creek Valley. (I’m a member of Quivira’s wine club and have been a fan ever since I first tasted there over 16 years ago.) One of the winery’s four vineyards, Wine Creek Ranch is a 100% Demeter Certified Organic Biodynamic farm adjacent to the winery on West Dry Creek Road. Because the vineyard is on the western side of Dry Creek Valley, the ’07 Quivira Wine Creek Ranch Zinfandel gets some of its complexity from less direct afternoon sun than the hotter eastern side of Dry Creek Valley where the zins tend toward bigger fruit (like Quivira’s zinfandels from Anderson Ranch). Zinfandels from the western side of the valley tend to show more restrained fruit balanced with earthy, herbal flavors. This zin is no exception. With a spicy nose of pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, eucalyptus, and cranberry, it tastes of blueberry, unripe blackberry, black pepper, dirt, and evergreen woods and has a long chocolate-like finish. The added Petite Sirah (8%) gives the wine structure and a dark purple color and lends a gritty mouthfeel which transports me immediately to the winding, dusty West Dry Creek Road. This zin was absolutely delicious for late evening sipping with friends and would be even better with steak or with fruit and blue cheese. I have two more bottles which I’ll hold on to for a couple more years. Though Quivira has discontinued the Wine Creek Ranch Zinfandel, its ’08 and soon-to-be-released ’09 vintages of “Quest” contain mostly zinfandel from Wine Creek Ranch. The photo is from the Quivira estate, looking west, October 2011. (I’m ready for a spring visit!)
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