2015 Three Wine Company Live Oak Zinfandel Contra Costa County 750 ml

We won’t soon forget the afternoon we spent with Zinfandel master Matt Cline, whose penchant for preserving the oldest, most significant Zinfandel vineyards in America is why we are able to offer his opulent, concentrated 2015 Live Oak Zinfandel today. When translated to bottle, Cline’s historic sites yield dramatic offerings, loaded with class and lush, dark-berry fruit. 

This isn’t the first time we’ve shared Cline’s inimitable California reds, but our latest visit served to remind us of exactly why Three Wine Co. Zinfandels have earned over 400 top ratings, and customer reviews like “I should have ordered more. Now I find myself rationing it!” Today, we have Matt’s unmatched Zinfandel at 30% off SRP, just $25 and the best price in the nation.

Matt has sought out the most noble vineyards in the state—sometimes battling real estate developers over them—and turned them into wines that deliver an unfathomable amount of concentration and richness for the price. Much of this, of course, is due to the sites he chooses.

Their mature vines produce dense, concentrated berries bursting with polyphenols and flavor compounds. The resulting wines are dazzling and complex, but tiny crops often mean that the winemakers who work with ancient sites are forced to blend across vineyards to produce a viable amount of wine. That’s why single-site, ancient-vine wines like this one are few and far between.

Rooted in deep, sandy soil, the Live Oak Vineyard is one of the most noble sites in the Golden State, and its reds are critic favorites. Brilliant purple in color, the Live Oak leaps from the glass with blackberry aromatics tinged with violet, graphite, and hints of cedar, before the silky, full-bodied wine segues into deliciously chewy tannins. Wine Enthusiast called it “opulent” and “smooth-textured,” with “lush, rich berry tones on the palate.”

Matt Cline called Live Oak Vineyard “the crowning achievement of ancient-vine Zinfandel in America.” This ancient vineyard in Contra Costa County is populated by 130-year-old vines that grow there without trellising, irrigation, or anything resembling modern farming. Planted in 1895, the site has a history that makes some of the oldest Cabernet vineyards in Napa Valley seem like they were planted last week. It sits on Delhi sand thirty feet deep, and produces far less fruit than its peers. But Cline refuses to dilute this Zin with younger berries, leading to a wine that is one of the most spectacularly concentrated, ethereally complex Zins in California.