2023 Ravenswood Winery Monte Rosso Zinfandel Sonoma Valley

Ravenswood was gone for five years. This is the bottle that brought it back.

Joel Peterson started Ravenswood in 1976 and built it on old-vine Sonoma Zinfandel. Constellation bought it and ran it big. Then, in 2020, it let the old-vine contracts lapse and shut the Sonoma winery. That should have been the end. Gallo revived the brand instead and brought Peterson back as a consultant. They skipped the heat-struck 2022 vintage rather than launch on it. The comeback is four Sonoma County Zinfandels from 2023, 3,400 cases in total. Monte Rosso is the one the whole relaunch hangs on.

The vineyard is the reason to care. Emmanuel Goldstein planted it in 1886. Louis M. Martini bought it in 1938. It sits on a southwest-facing slope of Moon Mountain, 1,300 feet up, on iron-rich red volcanic soil. The producer calls it one of California's legendary vineyards, and for once the word is earned. Peterson negotiated Zinfandel off this hill in the early 1990s. The 2023 comes from some of the same blocks.

Head winemaker Michael Eddy-Cort kept the cellar work classical. Small open-top tanks. A three-to-four-day cold soak. Cool fermentation. Twelve months in French oak, 40% of it new. Six percent Petite Sirah in the blend for dark fruit. What comes out is mountain Zin with its shoulders back. Plum, dark cherry, black pepper, a streak of iron, and a finish that does not rush.

I taste a lot of Monte Rosso Zinfandel from a lot of producers. This one holds its own, and it is the one I'd buy.

Open it for the story. Keep a few for the wine.