![]() ![]() By incorporating Petite Sirah and Syrah into the blend, we’re able to mitigate some of the predictability. Like golf or fly-fishing, you never truly master the game you just have the good days and bad days. This truism applies to Zinfandel more than any other varietal. You can only make great wine from great grapes. What we learned from those two tons is that there is neither a silver bullet nor alchemy once the grapes are in the winery. Quite often, you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes. Orin Swift Cellars was started with two tons of Zinfandel in 1998 – perhaps the most important two tons we’ve ever purchased. Our relationship with Zinfandel goes back 20 years. I am reunited with the varietal that got me started in the wine business and created Orin Swift. It was never if but when would we make Zinfandel again. It would end up being an eight-year break. ![]() What may be harder to believe is that this harvest also marks the twentieth year that Orin Swift has been in business. Some of those vintages I remember fondly, others I’d like to forget. It’s hard to believe that this will be my twenty first harvest in the Napa Valley. I would have to wait till 2016, which seemed like an eternity. But, like a child who only wants to do what he or she is told not to, I began to plot my return. It ripens unevenly, it is prone to rot, and it often has very high alcohol. When I sold the brand I agreed to not make Zinfandel for eight years. I made that wine for the next eight years, and then in 2008 I sold the brand. ![]() Circumstances led me to basically throw all my red wines together, most of which was Zinfandel, and I made a wine called The Prisoner. The next year, 2000, was another difficult year, much like 1998. I had finally arrived, although late and a bit hungover. What was left yielded my first commercial bottle of wine, the 1999 Orin Swift Cellars Zinfandel. I lost a third of the crop when I sprayed sulfur late in the year and a heat spike fried the morning side of the vines. I went back to Zinfandel, this time farming it myself. I sold the wine in bulk and tried again the next year. You see, 1998 was a tough, wet year, and no matter what I did in the cellar that first vintage, my baby, was just OK, and I’m not OK with OK. Truth be told, that first step was more like a trip or a stumble at best. I bought two tons of Zinfandel and took the first step of what I hope will be a lifelong journey in turning grape juice into alcohol. Oops! Back then I loved, as I do now, to drink Zinfandel. My goal was to never make more than one thousand cases. It was 1998 and with the ignorant bravado that only a twenty-five-year-old can possess I decided to form Orin Swift Cellars. I guess you could say it all started with Zinfandel, although you could also say it almost ended with Zinfandel. If winemaking is a series of challenges Zinfandel has them all in spades. But when you get it right it rewards you like no other. ![]() I would argue that Zinfandel may be the most difficult varietal to tame. None of you have tried it because it was never bottled. 8 Years in the Desert is the first Zinfandel by Dave Phinney in 8 years!Īs many of you know, the first commercial wine I made for Orin Swift was Zinfandel. Hear what the man, himself has to say about it…. His latest project, 8 years in the desert may be on of his most exciting yet. Even the wine-curious, that know his many brands, such as the Prisoner and Orin Swift, know little about the mind behind some of the most successful wine brands in American history. They are everywhere, from grocery stores to high-end wine shops. Wine lovers across the country may not know him by name, but they have seen and drank his wines. ![]()
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