2012 Seghesio Family Vineyards Zinfandel Block 8 San Lorenzo Vineyard 750 ml

A Sack of Gold Coins and a “Super Sonoma” Vineyard

Few California producers are truly capable of coaxing Zinfandels of nuance, longevity, and elegance from their single-vineyard strongholds. Ridge’s Pagani & Lytton Springs, Matt Cline’s Evangelho, Bill Knuttel’s Ottimino Von Weidlich spring to mind. But none is more storied than Seghesio.

The Seghesio story is straight out of 19th-century folklore. Edoardo Seghesio left Piedmont, Italy, in 1886 and settled in Sonoma County’s Italian Swiss Colony. Founded by Italian immigrants in 1881 but funded by local capitalists, the Italian Swiss Colony employed Italians, then arriving in San Francisco by the thousands, in a skill they knew well back in the old country — growing grapes. In 1893, Edoardo wed Angela Vasconi, the niece of the Colony’s manager.

By 1896, Francesco Passalacqua had saved enough gold coins from his work in the California mines to fill a sack. The Italian immigrant — the maternal great-grandfather of the current Seghesio owner, Peter — had saved up enough to buy a tiny vineyard that he named for his Italian hometown, San Lorenzo. This historic plot became a Seghesio holding through marriage, and earned its reputation as one of the most extraordinary parcels in Sonoma County.

The San Lorenzo Vineyard occupies a singular position, spanning both the Alexander Valley and Russian River Valley; vines in the former are rooted in Raynor and Haire clay loams, while the floor of the latter is composed of gravelly silt, and cloaked by pea-like fog throughout the summer months. Block 8 is located amidst the vineyard’s hills, planted with scion wood from historic mother clones. “If there’s a ‘super Sonoma,’ it’s vineyards like this,” Peter Seghesio told Wine Spectator.

In the wonderfully mild, dry 2012 growing season, the storied San Lorenzo plot performed like rarely before. While yields were fairly copious, Zinfandel clusters — often irregular in size and maturity — ripened beautifully, making for one of the cleanest and juiciest crops in memory.

The 2012 Seghesio Zinfandel Block 8 San Lorenzo Vineyard is vivid ruby to the edge, with luscious primary-fruit aromas of red fruit, raspberry and briar. Bright, elegant, and high-toned, still finishing with refreshing persistence and classic dusty tannins. Perfectly balanced!

Just $28 for a hot minute today, exclusively from WineAccess — a SCORCHER of a deal for the cream of California’s 2012 Zinfandel crop. Shipping included on 6. Yours to lose