A wine with a label worth paying attention to
Dry farming is the agricultural practice of cultivating a crop without irrigation — which contributes to the Cline Cellars “Ancient Vines” zinfandel's density and concentration.
Cline Cellars “Ancient Vines” Zinfandel
Contra Costa County, California
$15.99
14.5% alcohol
PLCB Item #7579
Sale price through Dec. 1; regularly $18.99
Vintners add all sorts of extra terms to their labels to make their wines seem more desirable. Some, like “reserve,” are pure marketing spin. Others, like “barrel fermented” for oaked chardonnays, or “brut” for sparkling wines that are not sweet, can refer to concrete winemaking processes that can and do affect flavor.
As times change and customers become more environmentally conscious, we are seeing more references to sustainability, as with this wine that comes emblazoned with a term that is newly in vogue: a “dry-farmed” zinfandel from California’s East Bay area.
Dry farming is the agricultural practice of cultivating a crop without irrigation. With water restrictions throughout the United States in the news, it’s little wonder that operations that farm this way would wish to make it known. However, dry farming is not simply a method to minimize a vineyard’s environmental impact — it is also a means to increase the flavor concentration of its fruit.
Irrigating vineyards increases the volume of grapes that can be harvested. Indeed, irrigating vineyards was banned in cooler, rainier Europe almost a century ago because it was seen as a means to artificially inflate crop yields and dilute wine’s flavor. But irrigation was essential to the expansion of winemaking into warmer, drier regions of the New World, like California, and remains the norm outside Europe.
Dry farming contributes to this wine’s density and concentration, as does its sourcing from older vines, up to a century old in some plots. Both factors boost its amplitude, giving the wine’s flavors of fig jam and strawberry compote more oomph and a more opulent texture, too. Try it with slow-roasted meats or blue cheeses, or pull it out as a great red to share over a rich holiday spread at Thanksgiving.
Also available at:
Canal’s in Mt. Ephraim, $14.09
Total Wine & More in Wilmington and Claymont, Del., $14.49
Wine Warehouse in Voorhees, $14.98