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Turley Wine Cellars was established in the Napa Valley in 1993 by Larry Turley. Turley, a founder of Frog's Leap Winery in Rutherford, wanted a smaller, more intimate production size, and wanted to work with old vines. He sold his shares in Frog's Leap to begin his own winery with the help of his sister Helen Turley, a notable Californian wine consultant and winemaker. Helen acted as winemaker until 1995 when she went back to consulting and Ehren Jordan took over.
The estate makes around 30 wines from 35 different vineyards, split roughly in half between estate-owned land and long-term leases. The focus has been on reviving old vines. Some of the vineyards are more than 100 years old, including the Hayne and Ueberroth vineyards, planted in 1902 and 1885 respectively. The predominant grape here is Zinfandel, but Petite Sirah features heavily as well. Turley's style embraces the full-bodied, robust, and fruit-dominant potential of Zinfandel when grown in Californian heat. The approach has been to bring the fruit to full physiological ripeness which can lead to high alcohol levels – in hot years some of Turley's wines have been as high as 18 percent alcohol.
| Varietal | Zinfandel |
|---|---|
| Vintage | 1997 |
| Rating | RP98 |
| Bottle Size | 750 ml |
| Bottle Quantity | 1 |
| Country | USA |
| Region | California |
| Location | North Coast |
| Producer | Turley Cellars |
| Color | Red |
| Wine Type | Table |
| Rating | RP98 - The 1997 Zinfandel Black-Sears Vineyard (81-year old vines; 17% alcohol) is the finest Black-Sears Turley has yet produced. Flirting with perfection, it is one of the most extraordinary Zinfandels I have ever tasted. This vineyard, located high on Howell Mountain, in a wilderness area inhabited by mountain lions, bobcats, and wild pigs, has turned out a saturated black/purple-colored wine with fabulous aromas of creme de cassis, minerals, cold steel, Asian spices, violets, and licorice. The wine possesses unbelievable fruit richness, layers of extract and glycerin, phenomenal purity, and a 40+-second finish. Somehow, some way, the 17% alcohol has been concealed beneath the wine's extraordinary richness. This offering should drink beautifully for 7-8 years. As I have stated many times in the past, Turley Cellars' offerings have become the reference point for Zinfandel, as they are the most complex, concentrated, hedonistic wines ever produced from this varietal. Critics claim the alcohol levels are too high, but proprietor Larry Turley and his winemaker, Ehren Jordan, would argue that the alcohol levels are high only because they harvested fully ripe fruit. Turley and Jordan have also taken the art of wine making to a higher playing field. At the same time, they have resurrected a bevy of old head-pruned Zinfandel vineyards that had largely been ignored, or had their crops sold off to be unceremoniously blended into white Zinfandel. Turley Cellars' goal is to produce 10,000 cases of unfiltered, hand-crafted Zinfandel. As for the 1997 Zinfandels, Larry Turley feels they "are the best wines we have yet made." The wines are amazingly good, and as the following tasting notes suggest, readers could buy blind here and always end up with a juicy, complex, mouth filling Zinfandel. |
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| Varietal | Zinfandel |
|---|---|
| Vintage | 1997 |
| Rating | RP98 |
| Bottle Size | 750 ml |
| Bottle Quantity | 1 |
| Country | USA |
| Region | California |
| Location | North Coast |
| Producer | Turley Cellars |
| Color | Red |
| Wine Type | Table |
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