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| Country: | United States |
| Regions: | California California (Lodi) |
| Winery: | Turley |
| Grape Type: | Zinfandel |
| Organic: | Yes |
| Vintage: | 2023 |
| Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
Turley Pesenti Zinfandel is made from 100 percent Zinfandel.
This certified organic estate-owned vineyard was planted in the 1920s on primarily limestone soil. Though the vines are head-trained and dry-farmed, the soil plays the most important role in distinguishing this vineyard on the west side of Paso Robles. The wines have a brightness, with chalk and floral characteristic aromas unique to the site, and to Zinfandel in general.
Review:
-Wine Spectator 93 Points
-Antonio Galloni (Vinous) 94 Points
Turley Wine Cellars was founded in Napa Valley by former emergency room physician Larry Turley in 1993. Under the direction of winemaker Tegan Passalacqua, Turley now makes 50 different wines from over 50 vineyards across California, primarily Zinfandel and Petite Syrah, with many vines dating back to the late 1800s. By farming organically and focusing on old vine vineyards of these varieties, Turley aims to both create and preserve California’s unique winemaking culture.
Born in Tennessee and raised in Georgia, Larry has spent the better part of his life on a farm. This being the south, they were primarily tobacco and dairy farms; nevertheless, his respect for the land and its cultivation began at a young age. As an adult, Larry channeled this passion for preservation towards people, studying medicine and working as an emergency room physician. After moving to California in the mid-seventies, Larry came home from the ER one night to discover someone camped on his property. After first driving his motorcycle through the tent (this was, after all, the 1970’s in the “wild wild west”) he met its occupant, John Williams, the soon-to-be winemaker at Spring Mountain. After sharing a glass of wine, they became friends; a few bottles later, they became business partners. Frog’s Leap Winery was begat in 1981, with Larry on a tractor by day and suturing by night.
The winery enjoyed quick success; however, much like Athena originated as an ache in Zeus’ head, the impetus for a smaller, more focused project began to take shape in Larry’s mind. He’d taken a shining to the wines made from Zinfandel & Petite Syrah, growing particularly fond of those made from old vine vineyards. Eventually he sold his half of Frog’s Leap to John and started Turley Wine Cellars in 1993.
Because Larry has never met an old vine vineyard he didn’t like, Turley now makes 47 separate wines from over 50 different vineyards, some with vines that date back to the late 1800’s. Often weak and decaying, these old vine vineyards require extra care and attention in order to restore them to their former glory. After twenty-five years in the emergency room, Larry can now focus his resuscitative skills on the various old vineyards that comprise the wines he loves.
Turley Zinfandel Buck Cobb is made from 100 percent Zinfandel.
Organically farmed head-trained vines planted at 1500' in the granite and quartz soils of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Primarily savory and red-fruited, with characteristics of black pepper, dried meats and fine-grained tannin texture.
This would be an excellent pairing with wood-fired pizza.
Review:
-Antonio Galloni (Vinous) 92 Points
Turley Zinfandel Buck Cobb is made from 100 percent Zinfandel.
Organically farmed head-trained vines planted at 1500' in the granite and quartz soils of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Primarily savory and red-fruited, with characteristics of black pepper, dried meats and fine-grained tannin texture.
This would be an excellent pairing with wood-fired pizza.
Review:
-Antonio Galloni (Vinous) 92 Points
Hailing from over two dozen vineyards across the beautiful Golden State, the Turley Juvenile is more of a clear bellwether for a vintage than any other wine we make. Fragrant, lifted aromas of ripe dark fruits like black raspberry and blood orange on the nose. Superb balance between acidity, tannin, and spice, with a succulent, profoundly satisfying texture.
Review:
The 2024 Zinfandel Juvenile is a very pretty entry-level offering from Turley. Crushed flowers, sweet red berry fruit, spice and mint give this mid-weight, perfumed red tons of character. The 2024 is an especially delicate, gracious Zinfandel. What a beauty.
-Vinous 91 Points
Chappellet Pritchard Hill Estate Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is made from Cabernet Sauvignon.
Chappellet's Pritchard Hill Cabernet Sauvignon has been, since the beginning of their winemaking career, the most sought after wine of their portfolio. The wine is truly a love letter to the winegrowing potential of Pritchard Hill. The wine was inspired by Bordeaux, and like most left bank Bordeaux, the wine is a blend of predominately Cabernet Sauvignon with remaining amounts other classic Bordeaux blend varieties. The vines grow upon rocky, mountainside vineyards. After harvest and fermentation, the wine was aged for 22 months in 100% new French oak barrels.
Chappellet planted on Pritchard Hill in 1967, among the first to prove this rugged, high-elevation bench on Napa Valley's eastern ridge could grow world-class Cabernet. The volcanic, iron-rich soils sit above the fog line, where poor ground and long, even ripening yield naturally concentrated fruit and the wine's celebrated capacity to age.
Review:
The flagship release here, the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Pritchard Hill sports a saturated purple hue and absolutely heavenly aromatics of crème de cassis, liquid violets, graphite, crushed stone, and a Pauillac-like character that builds with time in the glass. Based on 95% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Petit Verdot, it's full-bodied, has a deep, concentrated mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, and a great, great finish. This is magical stuff that offers pleasure even today given its purity, balance, and finesse, but I'd be shocked if it didn't keep for 50 years or more. Drink 2025-2075.
Jeb Dunnuck, 100 points
-Jane Anson (Jane Anson - Inside Bordeaux) 100 Points
-Joe Czerwinski (Robert Parker) 100 Points
-Decanter 99 Points
Cristom Pinot Noir Eileen Vineyard 2023 is made from 100% Pinot Noir.
Cristom Vineyards was founded in 1992 by the Gerrie family in the Eola-Amity Hills of Oregon's Willamette Valley, farming their east-facing volcanic hillside biodynamically and organically. Their single-vineyard Pinot Noirs, each named for a woman in the family, are Willamette benchmarks.
Eileen Vineyard sits at the very top of the Cristom estate, its windswept upper blocks looking west to the Van Duzer Corridor, the ocean gap that draws cooling afternoon air into the valley. It is the estate's most structured and age-worthy site — dark-fruited, mineral and taut — from a warm but even 2023 Willamette vintage.
Review:
DAOU Vineyards Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 77% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Petit Verdot.
A heady nose delivers fruit-forward aromas of blackberry, raspberry and plum with traces of licorice, thyme, vanilla and cherry. The palate is beautifully balanced, showing layers of black fruit and chocolate-covered blueberry with underlying herbal, cedar and mineral complexity. Exquisitely rounded tannins imbue the finish with stature and length.
Review:
-Wine Enthusiast 93 Points
-James Suckling 95 Points
DuMOL 'Isobel' Charles Heintz Vineyard Sonoma Coast Chardonnay is made from Chardonnay.
Founded in 1996, DuMOL is one of the Russian River Valley's benchmark producers of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Syrah, built on meticulous, small-lot winemaking under longtime winegrower Andy Smith. "Isobel" is DuMOL's bottling from the legendary Charles Heintz Vineyard, planted high on a ridge above Occidental on the far Sonoma Coast — some of California's oldest and most coveted Chardonnay vines, now more than forty years old. Fermented and aged in cigar-shaped French oak barrels, the 2023 captures the site's signature oily texture and breadth alongside crystalline, mineral energy.
Review:
"The 2023 Chardonnay Isobel Charles Heintz Vineyard was brought in on October 12 and 14, very late by historical standards. It captures all the magic of this site in its oily texture and breadth. Citrus confit, white pepper, flowers and crushed rocks are all beautifully delineated. For readers who want to know what Charles Heintz Chardonnay is all about, this is it!"
- Antonio Galloni, Vinous, 96 Points
Avennia Arnaut Syrah is made of 100% Syrah
For our taste, no one grows finer Syrah in the state than Dick Boushey. We named this wine after the Provencal Troubadour Arnaut Daniel, who invented the Sestina poem form, thus creating a connection between our two flagship efforts.
"Deep, dark Syrah notes on the nose, with dark blackberry, blueberry reduction, grilled meat, crushed olive, black licorice, camphor, pen ink, and cracked black pepper. The palate is super concentrated and dense, tightly focused, and deeply complex. Savory blueberry, pan drippings, a hint of orange essence, and hand-rubbed sage come through on the extremely long and nuanced finish. A compelling wine that will age for a couple decades at least." - Chris Peterson, Winemaker
We make this wine with minimal manipulation, using native yeasts and bottling unfined and unfiltered, to allow the "place" to shine through.
AVA: Yakima Valley
Blend: 100% Boushey Vineyard Syrah
Winemaking: 15% whole cluster, native yeast, 15% new French oak, aged 16 months, bottled unfined & unfiltered.
Review:
-Sean P. Sullivan 95 Points
-Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points
-James Suckling 93 Points
-Wine Spectator 91 Points
Pago de los Capellanes Reserva is made from 100% Tempranillo.
After carefully monitoring the vineyards, the harvest date is set by the maturity of the grapes, which are collected and fermented separately. They are given a six-day pre-fermentation cold maceration below 14ºC, then about 30 days of alcoholic fermentation at a controlled 28ºC, after which the wine is drawn off without pressing the skins; malolactic fermentation is slow and relaxed at 20ºC. The wine is aged 18 months in new French oak barrels, racked into fresh barrels every six months, then blended and bottled without filtration, clarification or cold treatment.
Ruby red with pure, intense garnet tones. The bouquet has fine complexity, with ripe fruit — especially cherry, blueberry and blackcurrant — in harmony with good wood, spice (vanilla and coconut) and a liquorice undertone. The palate shows great balance: pleasing, sweet-tannined from ripe fruit and exuberant on a pleasant level of acidity. Clay and chalk soils; 100% French oak, medium toast. Uncork and decant one hour before serving at 16–18ºC.
Review:
This is poised and polished, with fine acidity and a lingering mineral note grounding the rich blackberry, cassis, and dried cherry fruit. It's framed out by scents of violets, tobacco, incense, and coffee-toffee. It'll make for a beautiful wine at the table over the next 7-10 years.
- Wine Enthusiast 93 Points
Fresh blackberries with a herbal undertone. The palate is fleshy with firm fine-grained tannins and a savory touch. Drink or hold.
- James Suckling 91 Points