Once & Future Tasting

Tasting of Once & Future with Joel Peterson at Solano Cellars.

Joel Peterson is the founder / wine maker of Ravenswood Winery of Sonoma.
Ravenswood is especially known for its high quality single vineyard old vine Zinfandel which helped to promote serious red Zinfandel in California (sweet white Zinfandel was more popular back then).
As winery grew bigger, it needed to make high volume wine to keep the sizable business going.
This wasn't what Peterson wanted to do as a wine maker.
He sold Ravenswood and started over again.

Once & Future is a small-lot winery where Peterson makes wine in the way he envisioned when he took first step in wine making decades ago: old world style with Californian twist.

Mr. Joel Peterson and his wine

Oakley Rd Vineyard Mataro Contra Costa 2016
Mataro is the another name for Mourvedre.
Vines were planted in 1800 and dry farmed.
Plum, strawberry and tobacco.Tannin is soft.
Mourvedre is the grape with high tannin and its varietal wine is usually very harsh when young. Probably because of sandy soil, this wine is very smooth and easy to drink.

Forcini Vineyard Zinfandel Russian River Valley 2016
Forcini vineyard is in warmer part of Russian River Valley AVA.
Ripe and juicy. Savoriness of cheese.
Texture is soft.

Bedrock Vineyard Zinfandel Sonoma Valley 2016
Wine is made with grapes from 128 year old vines.
Floral and ripe fruit. Nut, coffee and velvety texture.

Teldeschi vineyard Zinfandel Dry Creek 2016
According to Peterson, Teldeschi might be the best vineyard site for Zinfandel.
Strawberry, cherry and tobacco.
Jammy with freshness of mint.

Palisades Petite Sirah Napa Valley 2015
Black cherry, plum and inky.
Big wine with firm tannin.

We were the first ones to arrive at this tasting event, but soon the place was filled with an enthusiastic crowd.
Among them were Peterson's long time friends and his initial investors from when he started the first winery.

His own success once prevented him from making wine the way he wanted.
He put storybook success behind and re-started business where he could be true to himself.

This sounds quite risky and scary to a timid (and lazy) person like me, but looking at him pouring great wines to people who have believed in him throughout his career, I started to feel that life should be lived this way (when I'm born again...).