Venge Vineyards Scout’s Honor Proprietary Red Wine 2022, Napa & Sonoma Counties, California

2022 vintage – 71% Old-Vine Zinfandel, 19% Old-Vine Charbono, 8% Dry-Farmed Petite Sirah, 2% Mountain Vineyard Syrah. “This delicious red blend honors our late and beloved Labrador Retriever, Scout. This wine is based on a tradition of producing a full bodied and delicious red wine. We start with a base of old-vine Zinfandel and build upon that with dry-farmed Petite Sirah, old-vine Charbono, and finish with mountain vineyard Syrah. The result is an unpretentious, generous mouthful of red wine that we recommend be opened and enjoyed immediately upon release. This vintage has a gorgeous, concentrated assemblage of violets, anise, honeysuckle, blue herbs, and a touch of vanillin. The palate is pure richness with loads of black fruits and currants, pepper spice, and an enveloping masculinity of char and tannins from the Syrah, Charbono and Petite Sirah. A seamless balance and mouth coating deliciousness lead to a wine that is quite pleasing to the senses. Cellared correctly, it will age for 5 to 8 years.” – winery. The small, individual lots of fruit were destemmed into a combination of stainless steel tanks and open top fermenters, where whole-berry fermentation took place for an average of 20 days. The wine was barrel aged for 14 months in 50% new American Oak and the balance in once used tight grain French Oak. No conventional pumps were used in the making of this wine. Only diaphragm air pumps, forced air pressure movement, or bulldogging, and transfers by gravity were employed to preserve the pure fruit integrity in the wine.