2017 Three Wine Company Zinfandel Old Vines Contra Costa County 750 ml

All-time Wine Access favorite Three Wine Company almost has too much going for it: THOUSANDS of four- and five-star reviews, an expert winemaker/owner who’s got four decades of experience working century-old own-rooted vines, and, of course, carte blanche with a slew of the Golden State’s finest sites. 

For this vintage, winemaker Matt Cline dialed up another ancient-vine KNOCKOUT. Grown on his “Big Three” sites—Evangelho (128 years old), Bigelow (over 100 years old), and Mazzoni–Live Oak (135 years old)—the 2017 is bursting with black-fruit intensity, not to mention gorgeous spice and complexity. A blend of 76% Zinfandel, 8% Carignan, 8% Petite Sirah, and 8% Alicante Bouschet, it’s big, bold, and sumptuously rich.  

Between the high-rises and strip malls of Contra Costa County, Cline has been working tirelessly to maintain the vineyards that offer a window into the past. There are no trellises, rose bushes, or mansion-like tasting rooms. In these vineyards, there’s no dirt, no gravel, no galets roulés. Everything is sand. 

Huge, gnarled vines the size of small trees crane skyward in shapes that defy modern viticulture and would make most Napa vineyard managers cringe. Between what passes for rows, the vines are marked Spanish Mataro, Carignan, Zinfandel, and Malvasia Nera—planted helter-skelter in the traditional “field blend” style. 

Hauled in buggies from the old Buena Vista Winery to Contra Costa, each vine was planted from a six-inch stick, called budwood, hand-twisted into the Delhi sand by Portuguese and Italian immigrant families. 

Each of the vines ekes out only a few clusters every year, but the tiny berries are packed with a dense red-fruit concentration that makes every Three Wine Company bottle taste like no other.