In 2001, we harvested our Zinfandel vineyard in six different blocks over a 4 week period of time (quite remarkable for a small contiguous vineyard). Harvesting all of our Zinfandel vineyard blocks at once would be more convenient, but with a hillside vineyard like ours, grape ripeness varies too much from the top to the bottom of the hill. We want all the grapes perfectly ripe; harvesting in small blocks lets us control that. Just to be doubly certain, we hand sort each cluster before it's crushed, rejecting underripe and overripe clusters.

If this wasn't enough, we selected only the Hilltop, Porcupine, and Winery Blocks for the final 2001 blend. We excluded the wine made from the Gophersnake Block, and sold it to another winery. It's expensive to select only the best blocks for our final blend, but worth it to ensure we don't compromise the quality of our Zinfandel.

Estate Vineyard Blocks: 100% Higgins clone Zinfandel from our Hilltop, Porcupine, and Winery blocks

15.3% alcohol

Price: $22

Cases Produced: 830

Tasting Note: Our 2001 Zinfandel displays aromas of black cherry, raspberry, and cocoa, plus appetizing raspberry jam, chocolate, and black pepper flavors. It is a hypothetical mix of the dark fruit flavors and structure of our 1999 Zinfandel, and the pure ripeness of our 2000 Zinfandel.