2018 Peterson Old School Zinfandel, Tollini Vineyard, Mendocino
Vivid ripe red berry aromatics burst on the nose as traces of white flowers and sarsaparilla add complexity. A full, rich entry reveals blackberry mingled with raspberry and pomegranate. Bright acidity bathes the palate balancing the juicy fruit essence, while toasty oak and hints of black pepper, brown spices and floral notes add interest and depth. The lush intense flavors fuse near the finish as the wine lingers.
This is the perfect Zin to pair with Italian braised pork shoulder ragu, or a meat lover’s pizza.
Jamie Peterson’s Vintaged View
Old School is sometimes described as our “Easy Drinking, No Thinking” Zin, but don’t let that make you think it’s any less serious of a wine than our other bottlings.
After nearly ten years putting together a value priced Zin blend from various Sonoma County grapes, our friend and grower in Mendocino, Alvin Tollini, let us know he had a mature Zinfandel vineyard coming available, and would we be interested in the fruit. We took the opportunity to create a new wine in our line of Tollini Vineyard offerings that would showcase what juicy Zin grapes from the hills of Mendocino’s Redwood Valley could produce.
Old School has a style that is full of flavor and character, but not over the top. We want a wine that is refreshing and “highly drinkable” and satisfying. The type of Zin you can either open on a weeknight or take to a party without hesitation. One you can think about and savor…but you really don’t have to. By blending in percentages of Petite Sirah and Carignane, we complement the fruit and jam of the Zin with structure, balance and spice, without overwhelming the singular terroir of this special place.
Specs
Varietal Breakdown | Harvest Dates:
89% Zinfandel | Sept. 28 & Oct. 4
7% Petite Sirah | Oct. 17
4% Carignane | Oct. 19
Vineyard: 100% Tollini Vineyard
Appellation: Redwood Valley, Mendocino
Alcohol: 14.1%
pH: 3.42
TA: 0.65g/100ml
Barrel Aging: 20 months
Cooperage: 10% new American oak barrels
90% 4-10 year-old neutral oak barrels
Bottling Date: July 21, 2020 (unfined & unfiltered)
This Mendo Blendo vintage packs a punch, or maybe it’s more of a muley kick. Deep intense aromatics of black plum and ripe blackberry mingle with traces of fine herbs, black pepper and forest floor. From the first sip, the concentrated dark flavors deliver a wow factor. The structure envelopes the chewy flavors of black raspberry and wild plum. Spicy pepper and cedar appear mid-palate and linger as the wine satiates the senses.
Not for the faint of heart, this wine deserves an equally hearty pairing. Try it with an all-meat pizza with extra cheese, or chorizo bison chili with smoky paprika added to spice it up.
Fred’s (Peterson) Vintaged View
Our Mendo Blendo reflects the two realities inherent in all interesting wines: place and people. The place being Mendocino County and the people (besides Jamie and myself) being Alvin and Sally Tollini, who grew the grapes that produced this wine. Though we would never trade living in and producing wines from Dry Creek Valley, I’ve always enjoyed Mendocino County, its people, and its wines.
Mendocino County winegrowing is an important part of my history. I began my winegrowing career in December 1973 as a vineyard worker for Frey Vineyards in Mendocino’s Redwood Valley. We began producing our Zero Manipulation wine from the Tollini’s Home Ranch “Wild Vines” Carignane in 2000, and have produced it every year since. Alvin Tollini is a third-generation Redwood Valley grower and a wonderful person, as well as an exceptional grape grower.
When Alvin offered us some of his Petite Sirah grapes, we were excited to produce a wine with the Tollini Mendocino Petite Sirah at its core. With 58% Petite Sirah along with 21% Syrah, 14% Grenache and 7% Carignane—all from Tollini Vineyard—we couldn’t legally call the wine a Petite Sirah, but wanted to come up with a fun name to reflect its origins. The name Mendo Blendo is our wink and a nod to Mendocino’s other agricultural crop of note.
Specs
Composition: 100% Tollini Vineyard
Varietal Breakdown | Harvest Dates:
58% Petite Sirah | September 22
21% Syrah | September 14
14% Grenache | October 2
7% Carignane | October 1
Appellation: Redwood Valley, Mendocino County
Alcohol: 14.8%
pH: 3.44
TA: 0.67g/100ml
Barrel Aging: 24 months
Cooperage: 16% new American oak barrels, 8% 2-year-old Hungarian oak barrels, 76% neutral old barrels
2019 Peterson Barbera, Tollini Vineyard, Mendocino County
Tasting Notes
The depth and intensity start with the nose as concentrated spicy aromatics of vine ripened blackberry and a brambly herbal quality appear. The focused intensity repeats on the palate where savory spices weave through black cherry, huckleberry, black raspberry, plum and pomegranate, while traces of dried sage and oolong tea enhance the wine’s depth. Robust yet so drinkable, this brawny beast will soon be a go-to favorite.
Delicious with a grilled skirt steak with pesto butter and fresh gnocchi, or braised lamb shanks with fresh rosemary served with oven-roasted baby red potatoes.
Fred’s (Peterson) Vintaged View
Long time Peterson wine devotees might fondly recall the original Peterson Barbera that we produced from 1994 through 1998. The grapes came from a small block of Barbera that I planted in 1989 on the “bench” overlooking our red barn winery on the Norton Ranch. Though we never produced much of this Barbera, it was a wine we loved to grow and make (as well as drink), and it developed a fervent following among our customers.
Over the last 20-plus years working with Alvin Tollini, I’ve come to respect his abilities as a grower and the suitability of his properties for producing intense, yet balanced red wines. When Alvin mentioned to me that he had a field on “Granddad’s Ranch” that he was ready to plant, I immediately thought of Barbera. I believed the site’s gravelly, well-drained red clay soil could produce a worthy successor to the Norton Ranch Barbera.
The 2019 is our tenth vintage from this block. As a 100% varietal from Tollini Vineyard, it truly showcases what the grape is capable of when grown in the right location. This wine hits the high notes, with power and depth behind it, and a purity and clarity one would expect from this ancient varietal. Salute!
Specs
Composition: 100% Barbera
Vineyard: Tollini Vineyard
Appellation: Redwood Valley, Mendocino
Harvest Date: September 28, 2019
Alcohol: 16.3%
pH: 3.25
TA: 0.75g/100mL
Barrel Aging: 22 months
Cooperage: 100% neutral oak barrels
Bottling Date: July 20, 2021 (unfined & unfiltered)
2019 Peterson Zero Manipulation Red Wine, Tollini Vineyard, Mendocino
Tasting Notes
Its name belies the sophistication of this delicious Rhône blend. The nose offers a medley of dark fruit and berries laced with traces of earthy minerality and subtle oak notes. The light entry quickly fills the palate with layers of rich, dark, juicy flavors — black raspberry, mulberry, plum and cherry with a sprinkling of cocoa powder. Hints of dried strawberry and eucalyptus make a brief appearance toward the long finish, adding interest and depth.
Enjoy a bottle with an artisan cheese platter, chicken street tacos, or pulled pork sliders with your favorite barbecue sauce and a side of slaw.
Jamie Peterson’s Vintaged View
Our Zero Manipulation is blended using 100% Tollini Vineyard fruit, and is the first in our line of wines honoring this great vineyard and farmer/friend to the north. We’ve produced Zero every year since 2000 using old vine Carignane as the dominant varietal, and in 2019 it makes up 79% of the blend. From this core of spicy, zippy red fruit flavors, we’ve added layers of depth, complexity and balance with Petite Sirah and Syrah. Our goal in the blend is to create a wine that is a true bistro wine—tasty, food friendly, full of soul and almost refreshing, without ever becoming heavy. As our original t-shirt proclaimed, this wine is always “easy to use and cheap to operate.”
Zero Manipulation is the winemaking philosophy that we employ on all of our wines. Our definition of Zero Manipulation is using the gentlest winemaking techniques possible to maximize flavors, aromas and the original essence of the grapes from the given vineyard and vintage. The less you do in the course of a wine’s tenure in the cellar, the more of the grape’s, vineyard’s, and vintage’s essence you’ll have to bottle. Every time you do something to a wine, you take out a little of what you started with. We endeavor to share with you as much of the grape’s true essence in every bottle; naturally, sustainably and with a mind to being easy on your wallet.
Tollini Vineyard
The traditional head trained, dry farmed Carignane blocks were planted by Alvin Tollini’s father and grandfather. The Syrah and Grenache were planted by Alvin with the same time-honored techniques and sustainable approach. All sit on southwest facing benches in the Redwood Valley.
Specs
Composition | Harvest Dates:
79% Carignane | October 22nd
11% Petite Sirah | September 28th
10% Syrah | September 20th
Appellation: Tollini Vineyard, Redwood Valley, Mendocino
Peterson Winery has been producing wine in Dry Creek Valley for 30 years and, like most wineries in the Valley, produces Zinfandel as well as other wines. Yet a closer look shows that is where the similarities end.
Owner Fred Peterson is an iconoclast with an old world winemaking philosophy and a reverence for sustainable farming. The Peterson approach is to capture the essence of vintage and vineyard—a philosophy they call Zero Manipulation—with low tech, yet high touch, to produce wines of a place, wines with soul. The evolution of Peterson wines and winemaking accelerated when Fred’s son Jamie became assistant winemaker in the summer of 2002. In 2006, after moving from the tiny red barn on Lytton Springs to Timber Crest Farms, Jamie was given the overall responsibilities as winemaker. As a winegrowing team, Fred and Jamie assess the grapes from each vineyard and vintage as the season progresses, evaluating how the weather, soil and site are interacting for the particular vintage. At Peterson winery, the winemaking process begins while the grapes are still on the vines. Zero Manipulation is a discipline the Petersons follow to capture the character and balance of inherent in the grapes. Zero Manipulation means using the most gentle, traditional winemaking practices possible to maximize the flavors, aromatics and texture of the wines. Fred and Jamie celebrate vintage differences and don’t tweak or homogenize the wine to obtain consistency of flavors, a common practice in mass-market wineries. For Fred and Jamie, Peterson Winery is all about the wines. But if you look a little deeper, you’ll see the heart and soul that goes into every bottle.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, LA, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, RI, SC, TX, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
@danandlisa
I also have too much wine, and everyplace I could put more is full even before the case of tercero gets here. Love the Mendo Blendo and the Zero especially. Need to think about this one, at an exceptional price too.
NOTE that this is not an even split between the types of wines in the half case and full case. It’s 1-1-2-2 and 1-1-5-5 split. In both cases you only get 1 Mendo Blendo and 1 Barbera.
@danidani12@TimW Peterson usually autobuy for me but noticed the split & rethinking it. Makes it hard to split with a friend. Would like to see more of the Barbera for sure.
Thanks for pointing that out for folks! We are down to the last 30-odd cases of the Barbera, and didn’t make a lot of Mendo for the 2020 and it has ben selling out quickly, so we almost didn’t include any in the offer at all… but we know they had been favorites of Casemates so we set aside some of the last of them to be able to at least provide some to everyone.
Hello Casemates–greetings from sunny SoCal! I am reviewing the 2020 Mendo Blendo. Peterson is an auto-buy for me so I was happy to receive this on Wednesday. Stashed it in the wine fridge until Thursday evening. I know I had (and loved) some 2018 of this blend, but the husband doesn’t drink red and I was leaving for a trip on Saturday so no time for comparison. Anyhoodle, had the initial taste and found black cherry on nose, drier than I was expecting, but tart and smooth. Lovely deep purple color. Not blown away by the taste. I left it to air while I went to meet a friend, but ya girl was over served due to 1. watching the Phillies game and 2. celebrating the Phillies win, so no later taste that day. Friday, I got more of a floral scent, and I liked it but I didn’t love it. It was better after I put it through the Vinturi. Based on my enjoyment of the 2018, I am guessing it would benefit from a few years of aging. If it were only this wine, I might not buy, but the price is phenomenal and with the mixed case, I am all over this offering. In conclusion, GO PHILS!! Also, thank you, Alice, Casemates, et.al. and happy to have a new glass!
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations).
Peterson Tollini Vineyard Mixed Reds - $20 = 13.33%
@kaolis Oops on the Zin. The label states, and correct alcohol listed the other places, should be the 15.2%. Will go to fix that in between press loads today.
Barbera on steroids. Crazy, I know. Not our ideal numbers, but we don’t make wine by the numbers and try to manipulate as little as needed to make a tasty wine… Also we don’t fully use that government provided wiggle room on alcohol declarations that maybe we should. With Barbera we are generally waiting for the acid to come into balance before we pick. In years like 2019 when we get a late heat spike before they are ready, we can get a quick dehydration, which concentrates both the acidity as well as the sugar. The crazy thing is we added a good 15% of water to the must/grapes to try and make up for it and create a more balanced wine… And removed some acid shortly after primary fermentation… And it still ended up those large numbers. Still, with it being all in balance, and tasting fresh and not tasting overripe as our fellow lab rat notes below too, we went ahead with producing it and bottling it.
Apologies for the late post. I was lucky enough o receive a bottle of the Tollini Barbera for review.
Out of the bottle it had vegetal and spicy smell. First taste was a little closed down and tannic with some black berry.
After about a half hour of air it had opened up. Nice round mouthfeel with a good balance of tannin and glycerine. The palate was sour cherry, berries and some herbal notes. My wine appreciating in-laws also gave it two thumbs up as we drank it with Turkish mixed grill take-out.
Overall It’s a solid weekday red, good value at $12.50 and even better at the case price
Love our Peterson buys! But… we’re out of town during the shipping window. Are there any new magic buttons to press to delay receipt until Nov 13th+? Maybe?
The UPS hold window is pretty limited here for us.
@benguin986 I’ve learned (the hard way) never to trust the stated shipping windows here. I lost out on a case of Winesmith Unicorn last summer (2022) because they shipped it a full week earlier than even the beginning of the stated shipping window. We were away from civilization that week and didn’t even know UPS was attempting delivery. Thurs morning, Fri morning, and 3rd attempt was Saturday morning, the day we made it back to civilization, a few hours too late.
Nothing I tried to get it redelivered worked; contacting UPS and paying a redelivery fee, e-mailing Casemates customer service, nothing. It was returned to sender and I was refunded despite my expressed preference to have the wine rather than a refund. Customer service could not comprehend why I would be upset that the wine was sent early.
I don’t know what this means for you, but I don’t think it bodes well.
@benguin986@moondigger I’ve had this issue also. You can try to proactively email customer service after purchasing and see if they have more information. Sometimes they’ll have a more firm expectation for the shipping window.
@benguin986 you have to ship it to a friend, a trusty neighbor, another Casemate if there is any chance at all you won’t be around during the “mystery window”! I’ve done that.
@benguin986@ttboy23 UPS MyChoice offers delivery holds/vacation holds in addition to hold at location if that helps at all. My last order here the delivery window was Oct 6 - Oct 9. It was delivered on Sept 20 while I was 1200 miles away but I worked it out.
Actually I see Tercero which was supposed to be here Oct 30 - Nov 1 has shipped and will be here Friday.
So kind of a crap shoot.
@kaolis@ZeppelinWinery Exactly. That USED to work great when it was FedX and could send to the closest retail store like $1 in the village 4 miles away. Nearest UPS is 10 miles.
Hey Fred,
Are sulfuric acid and dimethyl dicarbonate interventions? Asking for a friend!
How have you been? I need to get up there to see you. I had to bail on Iowa
@ZeppelinWinery Delightful stuff. Only in moderation! Velcorin free zone!
Emily P made it to the Iowa functions this year. Sounded as wondrous as always.
Fred is heading to Ohio next week so he’s getting a haircut and massage appointment later today. And then scrambling to get 20 tons harvested tomorrow… “Gentleman farmer” indeed
By the way if anybody is even halfway on the fence about buying these wines you should double your order. They really are
one: excellent
two: authentic
Hi all - Jamie Peterson here. Sorry about being late to the party! Between the assistant having to leave for a family issue yesterday, and prepping to press 12 tons of reds today so we can fit in another 15 tons tomorrow, the day ran away before I could do more than “like” a couple of peoples posts…
Thanks for all the love and support, for these and all the other wines. Will do my best to answer any other questions or thoughts or random ramblings from Mr Stillman @ZeppelinWinery in between press loads and pounding barrel hoops! A weird harvest this year with the weather, and things over a month later than “normal,” but very happy with quality on most lots, and hoping to get the remainder of our grapes picked before the end of the month.
As one of the mates pointed out, this is not an evenly split pack of the four Tollini wines. The Mendo Blendo has been selling out quicker than we had in the past, and have a number of distributors and accounts that have allocations we promised to support… Just barely bottled the 2021 and can’t release until next fall. We are down to the last few layers of 2019 Barbera, and not quite ready to release the 2020, so after debating whether to not offer any at all, the folks at WCC came up with this split.
@PetersonWinery I’m really excited to try these. One, it sounds like the style is right up my alley. And two, I’ve been thinking about looking to Redwood Valley to source zinfandel for my own winemaking in the future, so I’m super interested to try them with that in mind. How long do you leave the zins on the skins?
Nice. Alvin Tollini has had a little extra Zin some of the last few years. Other good sources he knows as well.
The Zin, and really all the grapes we get from up there, tend to have a little thicker skins than our DCV ones, so I usually don’t give quite as long on the skins for fermentation… since we’re aiming at making a little more ready to drink style out of them as well. A 3-4 day cold soak, and will press off at 10-12 days total, depending on vintage and dryness. DCV is usual more in the 12-18 days for us.
@PetersonWinery very cool! Less time on the skins also sounds pretty good to me- I hate seed tannin. I’m all about maximizing
monomeric tannin extraction so I usually press off around six brix, though of course that pushes me towards nice intense grapes and away from extended hang time
2018 Peterson Old School Zinfandel, Tollini Vineyard, Mendocino
Jamie Peterson’s Vintaged View
Specs
2020 Peterson Mendo Blendo, Tollini Vineyard, Mendocino
Tasting Notes
Fred’s (Peterson) Vintaged View
Specs
2019 Peterson Barbera, Tollini Vineyard, Mendocino County
Tasting Notes
Fred’s (Peterson) Vintaged View
Specs
2019 Peterson Zero Manipulation Red Wine, Tollini Vineyard, Mendocino
Tasting Notes
Jamie Peterson’s Vintaged View
Tollini Vineyard
Specs
What’s Included
6-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not all wines are for sale on winery website, $288/case MSRP
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, LA, ME, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, RI, SC, TX, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Nov 6 - Tuesday, Nov 7
Peterson Tollini Vineyard Mixed Reds
6 bottles for $74.99 $12.50/bottle + $1.33/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $129.99 $10.83/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2018 Peterson Old School Zinfandel
2020 Peterson Mendo Blendo
2019 Peterson Barbera
2019 Peterson Zero Manipulation Red Wine
I have too much wine. Guess this is going in the spare bedroom. It is an auto buy for me.
@danandlisa
I also have too much wine, and everyplace I could put more is full even before the case of tercero gets here. Love the Mendo Blendo and the Zero especially. Need to think about this one, at an exceptional price too.
NOTE that this is not an even split between the types of wines in the half case and full case. It’s 1-1-2-2 and 1-1-5-5 split. In both cases you only get 1 Mendo Blendo and 1 Barbera.
@TimW Nice catch!!!
@TimW thanks…i ordered before looking at discussion so missed that. Thought it was an even split.
@TimW I wonder why
@danidani12 @TimW Peterson usually autobuy for me but noticed the split & rethinking it. Makes it hard to split with a friend. Would like to see more of the Barbera for sure.
@dawnlac @TimW guessing based on the years they have more of the 2018 zin they want to move
@TimW
Thanks for pointing that out for folks! We are down to the last 30-odd cases of the Barbera, and didn’t make a lot of Mendo for the 2020 and it has ben selling out quickly, so we almost didn’t include any in the offer at all… but we know they had been favorites of Casemates so we set aside some of the last of them to be able to at least provide some to everyone.
Peterson has become an auto-buy for me!
2020 Peterson Mendo Blendo
Hello Casemates–greetings from sunny SoCal! I am reviewing the 2020 Mendo Blendo. Peterson is an auto-buy for me so I was happy to receive this on Wednesday. Stashed it in the wine fridge until Thursday evening. I know I had (and loved) some 2018 of this blend, but the husband doesn’t drink red and I was leaving for a trip on Saturday so no time for comparison. Anyhoodle, had the initial taste and found black cherry on nose, drier than I was expecting, but tart and smooth. Lovely deep purple color. Not blown away by the taste. I left it to air while I went to meet a friend, but ya girl was over served due to 1. watching the Phillies game and 2. celebrating the Phillies win, so no later taste that day. Friday, I got more of a floral scent, and I liked it but I didn’t love it. It was better after I put it through the Vinturi. Based on my enjoyment of the 2018, I am guessing it would benefit from a few years of aging. If it were only this wine, I might not buy, but the price is phenomenal and with the mixed case, I am all over this offering. In conclusion, GO PHILS!! Also, thank you, Alice, Casemates, et.al. and happy to have a new glass!
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations).
Peterson Tollini Vineyard Mixed Reds - $20 = 13.33%
Peterson is almost and autobuy. In for one!
/giphy spiffy-lone-puffin
@Huntersmoon In for one case (and another Phillies win)!!
16.3?
Producer website mentions two different abv for the zin, 14.1 and 15.2
@kaolis yeah Barbera at 16.2% along with those pH and TA numbers seems…odd…
@kaolis @klezman hopefully winery participates and clarifies
@kaolis Oops on the Zin. The label states, and correct alcohol listed the other places, should be the 15.2%. Will go to fix that in between press loads today.
@kaolis @klezman
Barbera on steroids. Crazy, I know. Not our ideal numbers, but we don’t make wine by the numbers and try to manipulate as little as needed to make a tasty wine… Also we don’t fully use that government provided wiggle room on alcohol declarations that maybe we should. With Barbera we are generally waiting for the acid to come into balance before we pick. In years like 2019 when we get a late heat spike before they are ready, we can get a quick dehydration, which concentrates both the acidity as well as the sugar. The crazy thing is we added a good 15% of water to the must/grapes to try and make up for it and create a more balanced wine… And removed some acid shortly after primary fermentation… And it still ended up those large numbers. Still, with it being all in balance, and tasting fresh and not tasting overripe as our fellow lab rat notes below too, we went ahead with producing it and bottling it.
@klezman @PetersonWinery Thanks for the info, much appreciated
2019 Peterson Barbera, Tollini Vineyard
Apologies for the late post. I was lucky enough o receive a bottle of the Tollini Barbera for review.
Out of the bottle it had vegetal and spicy smell. First taste was a little closed down and tannic with some black berry.
After about a half hour of air it had opened up. Nice round mouthfeel with a good balance of tannin and glycerine. The palate was sour cherry, berries and some herbal notes. My wine appreciating in-laws also gave it two thumbs up as we drank it with Turkish mixed grill take-out.
Overall It’s a solid weekday red, good value at $12.50 and even better at the case price
@jermfish what’s the alcohol as stated in the bottle?
@klezman 16.3
I’ve enjoyed all of the wines I’ve received from Peterson
Love our Peterson buys! But… we’re out of town during the shipping window. Are there any new magic buttons to press to delay receipt until Nov 13th+? Maybe?
The UPS hold window is pretty limited here for us.
@benguin986 I’ve learned (the hard way) never to trust the stated shipping windows here. I lost out on a case of Winesmith Unicorn last summer (2022) because they shipped it a full week earlier than even the beginning of the stated shipping window. We were away from civilization that week and didn’t even know UPS was attempting delivery. Thurs morning, Fri morning, and 3rd attempt was Saturday morning, the day we made it back to civilization, a few hours too late.
Nothing I tried to get it redelivered worked; contacting UPS and paying a redelivery fee, e-mailing Casemates customer service, nothing. It was returned to sender and I was refunded despite my expressed preference to have the wine rather than a refund. Customer service could not comprehend why I would be upset that the wine was sent early.
I don’t know what this means for you, but I don’t think it bodes well.
@benguin986 @moondigger I’ve had this issue also. You can try to proactively email customer service after purchasing and see if they have more information. Sometimes they’ll have a more firm expectation for the shipping window.
@benguin986 you have to ship it to a friend, a trusty neighbor, another Casemate if there is any chance at all you won’t be around during the “mystery window”! I’ve done that.
@benguin986 @ttboy23 UPS MyChoice offers delivery holds/vacation holds in addition to hold at location if that helps at all. My last order here the delivery window was Oct 6 - Oct 9. It was delivered on Sept 20 while I was 1200 miles away but I worked it out.
Actually I see Tercero which was supposed to be here Oct 30 - Nov 1 has shipped and will be here Friday.
So kind of a crap shoot.
@kaolis,thx. Tercero shipped (early)! Good job Larry and WCC
@kaolis @ttboy23
Have them shipped to a staffed business address for Bacchus’ sake!
@kaolis @ZeppelinWinery Exactly. That USED to work great when it was FedX
and could send to the closest retail store like $1 
in the village 4 miles away. Nearest UPS is 10 miles.
Hey Fred,
Are sulfuric acid and dimethyl dicarbonate interventions? Asking for a friend!
How have you been? I need to get up there to see you. I had to bail on Iowa
@ZeppelinWinery Delightful stuff. Only in moderation! Velcorin free zone!
Emily P made it to the Iowa functions this year. Sounded as wondrous as always.
Fred is heading to Ohio next week so he’s getting a haircut and massage appointment later today. And then scrambling to get 20 tons harvested tomorrow… “Gentleman farmer” indeed
By the way if anybody is even halfway on the fence about buying these wines you should double your order. They really are
one: excellent
two: authentic
Hi all - Jamie Peterson here. Sorry about being late to the party! Between the assistant having to leave for a family issue yesterday, and prepping to press 12 tons of reds today so we can fit in another 15 tons tomorrow, the day ran away before I could do more than “like” a couple of peoples posts…
Thanks for all the love and support, for these and all the other wines. Will do my best to answer any other questions or thoughts or random ramblings from Mr Stillman @ZeppelinWinery in between press loads and pounding barrel hoops! A weird harvest this year with the weather, and things over a month later than “normal,” but very happy with quality on most lots, and hoping to get the remainder of our grapes picked before the end of the month.
As one of the mates pointed out, this is not an evenly split pack of the four Tollini wines. The Mendo Blendo has been selling out quicker than we had in the past, and have a number of distributors and accounts that have allocations we promised to support… Just barely bottled the 2021 and can’t release until next fall. We are down to the last few layers of 2019 Barbera, and not quite ready to release the 2020, so after debating whether to not offer any at all, the folks at WCC came up with this split.
@PetersonWinery Thank you very much for selling your lovely wine on this site.
@PetersonWinery I’m really excited to try these. One, it sounds like the style is right up my alley. And two, I’ve been thinking about looking to Redwood Valley to source zinfandel for my own winemaking in the future, so I’m super interested to try them with that in mind. How long do you leave the zins on the skins?
@novium
Nice. Alvin Tollini has had a little extra Zin some of the last few years. Other good sources he knows as well.
The Zin, and really all the grapes we get from up there, tend to have a little thicker skins than our DCV ones, so I usually don’t give quite as long on the skins for fermentation… since we’re aiming at making a little more ready to drink style out of them as well. A 3-4 day cold soak, and will press off at 10-12 days total, depending on vintage and dryness. DCV is usual more in the 12-18 days for us.
@PetersonWinery very cool! Less time on the skins also sounds pretty good to me- I hate seed tannin. I’m all about maximizing
monomeric tannin extraction so I usually press off around six brix, though of course that pushes me towards nice intense grapes and away from extended hang time