Wilson Winery

One of the pleasures of tasting wine blind is coming upon a wine that so clearly expresses its place that there’s no doubt about its origin. Sawyer Vineyard is one of those places. It’s on a low knoll of Bradford Mountain, about midway up Dry Creek Valley’s southwest side. The elevation is not extreme, but the terrain and the head-trained vines require hand-tending and hand-picking. The individuality of the site is one reason winemaker Diane Wilson doesn’t blend anything into this wine – it’s 100% Zinfandel.

It’s also one big boy, with alcohol pushing 16 percent . Aromatically, the wine features very ripe dark fruit and dark raisins. Those same flavors are mouth-filling and full-bodied, but like all great Dry Creek Zin this wine delivers a big flavor package that’s well shaped and balanced. The structure gives the wine a great ride through your mouth, from the plush entry to the smooth mid-palate to the claret-like grip at the finish. All through you get the brambly complexity that makes Zinfandel such a pure pleasure to imbibe.

Reviewed August 10, 2007 by Thom Elkjer.