About this WINE
Turley Estate
Turley has been producing big, lush Zinfandels from old vines throughout California since 1993. Larry Turley heads up this family owned winery while Ehren Jordan oversees the winemaking. Turley is a famous name in California wine.
In the words of Robert Parker (The Wine Advocate) "Turley remains the reference point for world-class, quintessential old vine Zinfandels. As always, a mind-boggling array of Zinfandels and Petite Syrahs are produced by the world’s premier Zinfandel specialist, Larry Turley. He deserves remarkable credit for his “holy grail” quest to locate largely forgotten parcels of old Zinfandel vines, and preserve as many of these historic sites as possible.”
Founded by Larry Turley in 1993, Turley Wine Cellars has been sourcing from Napa Valley, Sonoma County, and most recently, in Paso Robles. In recent times they purchased the Pesenti Winery and vineyards in Templeton in 2000. Among California’s prestige producers of Zinfandel, Turley Wine Cellars is undoubtedly the one accorded the most “cult” status: coveted with almost religious fervor by zin lovers to the point where they often pay ridiculous prices for some of their top cuvees. Its status as an ultra-premium producer of Zinfandel is no longer a secret, therefore these wines are becoming very hard to source.
Organic farming comes naturally for Turley wine cellars. As Larry was raised on an organic tobacco farm in the southeast, both organics and farming are in his blood. The house style favours a style of Zinfandel built on an expression of aromatic intensity & richness but not excess heaviness.
Turley produce a huge portfolio of different Zinfandel cuvees / single vineyards and all these are notoriously difficult to source due to their popularity. We have managed to find a small amount of stock of three of these – the Juvenile blend and 2 single vineyard offerings. These wines are for the short to medium term drinking and will be approachable once they are with us early next year and will age for next 3 – 5 years.
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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Description
Though the vast majority of Turley Zinfandel wines are single vineyards, Juvenile is actually composed of a variety of young vines that have been replanted in several old vine sites. The vines that make up Juvenile range in age from about 6-25 years, and they are pull from 15 of the Turley vineyards across California. The Juvenile is a great introduction to the Turley house style and comes at a fantastic value for money.
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