2020 Frog's Leap, Zinfandel, Napa Valley, California, USA

2020 Frog's Leap, Zinfandel, Napa Valley, California, USA

Product: 20201122125
 
2020 Frog's Leap, Zinfandel, Napa Valley, California, USA

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Description

Tasted blind. Medium ruby with just a hint of purple. Vibrant plumminess to the nose with blackberry and bramble. Well-balanced mouth-watering acid and sandy tannin. Very fresh. A charred plumminess carries on a fresh finish. Quite lovely but needs a year more in bottle.

Jancis Robinson MW, jancisrobinson.com (January 2023)

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Critics reviews

Jancis Robinson MW16.5/20

Tasted blind. Medium ruby with just a hint of purple. Vibrant plumminess to the nose with blackberry and bramble. Well-balanced mouth-watering acid and sandy tannin. Very fresh. A charred plumminess carries on a fresh finish. Quite lovely but needs a year more in bottle.

Jancis Robinson MW, jancisrobinson.com (January 2023) Read more

About this WINE

Frog's Leap

Frog's Leap

Frog's Leap Winery in Napa Valley, California was founded in 1981 on a spot along Mill Creels known as the Frog Farm. An old ledger revealed that around the turn of the century frogs were raised there and sold for $.33 a dozen, destined no doubt, for the tables of Victorian San Francisco gourmets.

Frog's Leap Winery is happily ensconced at the historic Red Barn property in Rutherford. This grand and Welcoming building was originally built as a winery in 1884. It is now not only home to some of the Napa Valley's best wines but also to what has to be the wine world's best motto - "Time's fun when you're having flies!"

A strong commitment to sustainable agriculture on the part of Frog's Leap's vineyards complements the winery's goal: to have fun making elegant wines with superb balance: a crisp and vivacious Sauvignon Blanc, a spicy and engaging Zinfandel, a classic Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, a rich barrel-fermented Carneros Chardonnay, and a supple, fruit-filled Merlot.

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Napa Valley

Napa Valley

North Coast's Napa Valley is California's most famous viticultural area (AVA), claiming some of the most expensive agricultural land in the world and producing wines of ‘cult’ status.

Its 16,000 ha of vines lie over a strip (40 miles long-5 miles wide) of diverse soils (clay, gravely, volcanic), with its northernmost end on the side of Mountain Helena and its foot in San Francisco Bay. The valley is framed by two mountains ranges Vaca (to the north) and Mayacamas (to the south), yet the main climatic influence is the cool wind and fog that is sucked in from San Pablo Bay during the afternoon, allowing grapes to ripen slowly and evenly. 

The area enjoys a variety of unique microclimates, as temperatures can vary dramatically as much as 15 degrees, from the north to the south end of the valley. These differences have led to the creation of several sub-AVAs (14 in total) including:

Atlas Peak, Chiles Valley District, Diamond Mountain District, Howell Mountain, Los Carneros, Mt. Veeder, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, Spring Mountain District, Stags Leap District, Yountville, Wild Horse Valley and Oak Knoll District. The Calistoga AVA is still pending approval.

Both the “Napa Valley” designation and the sub-AVA name must appear on the wine label simultaneously, with the exception of wines from the Carneros AVA, which is shared between the Napa Valley and the Sonoma County.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the undisputed king of Napa grapes, occupying over 45% of the vineyard acreage, followed by (predominantly) Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Zinfandel, Merlot, Cab. Franc and to a lesser extent Petite Sirah, Sangiovese, Barbera, Dolcetto.

Recommended Producers
Frog's Leap, Dominus, David Ramey, Viader, Stag's Leap Cellars, Paras Vineyards, Heitz.

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Zinfandel

Zinfandel

Zinfandel is California`s most distinctive red grape and is one of the few that is considered one of their "own", even though it originated in Europe.

Although it has been grown in California for well over a century, it took the popularity of white ("blush") Zinfandel in the mid 1980s to persuade growers to retain their Zinfandel vines and indeed to plant more. Within 10 years, plantings had doubled and Red Zinfandel had become a Californian icon.

It is grown all across California though seems to perform best in meso-climates, which combine hot days and cool nights. It has a worrying tendency to ripen unevenly, leaving the producer with a sort of viticultural catch-22 - if he harvests too soon then he has green, unripe grapes, too late and he has dried out raisiny grapes.

After vinification, Zinfandel wines are often matured in American oak, which gives them a vanilla dimension. There is no single flavour character that can be associated with the grape - it can produce light, jammy, almost Beaujolais-type wines, redolent of freshly crushed berries, through to full-bodied, robust, oak aged wines brimming with ripe, peppery, cassis-like fruits. The best can age marvellously.

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When is a wine ready to drink?

We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.

Not ready

These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.

Ready - youthful

These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.

Ready - at best

These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.

Ready - mature

These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.