Straw Wine a Later Harvest Zinfandel

Retail Price: $64.95 | Wine Club Member Price: $55.21

2004 Late Harvest Zinfandel

The Late Harvest Straw Wine is an incredible dessert wine.

The secret of this traditional Amarone style dessert wine was handed down from a wonderful producer in Northern Italy. The Zinfandel grapes are hand harvested, and then the clusters are laid out in the vineyard on straw or special drying papers. With a watchful eye, the clusters receive a quarter turn every three days. Zillions of clusters!

Within approximately three weeks, the clusters have achieved the necessary concentration of sugar, flavor, and color. We hand-sort each cluster, removing any raisins or defects, to ensure quality. The resulting sugar at pressing is 35% to 45%; as opposed to most table wines that are harvested at about 23% sugar (brix).

The juice is like boysenberry syrup; very sticky stuff. It will not pump and will not press easily. The juice runs drip, by slow drip. Rain is the great fear this time of year while the voluptuous grape clusters sun themselves in the vineyard. For many reasons this is not a wine we attempt every year.

At pressing this 2004 vintage had a sugar of 36.6, after fermentation the residual sugar is 7.2% brix, with an alcohol content of 16.5%.

When you have put your heart into the kitchen preparing a wonderful meal or BBQ, this wine is a fun and unique way towards a relaxing finish. Serve with triple thick brownies, fine cheeses or chocolate-dipped dried fruits. You can also, warm up a little in a sauce pan with a few blueberries and pour over vanilla bean ice cream. For a finishing touch add some dark chocolate on top. We double-dare you!!!