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The Gnarly Head Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel 2022-Grateful Dead Edition is a wine I found on sale for $7.99. Gnarly Head wines offer both a Grateful Dead Zinfandel and a Cabernet Sauvignon. These wines are from Delicato Family Vineyards which have been in Lodi for 100 years, they recently purchased Coppola Wines.
The Lodi AVA is located in the river delta from San Pablo Bay, east of San Francisco. It is in the Central Valley of California near Sacramento and would be too warm for farming grape vines if not for the cooler river valleys. Many producers here have owned their lands for 100 years or more.
The Gnarly Head part of Gnarly Head Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel 2022-Grateful Dead Edition refers to the head pruning of the vines which raises the fruit higher off the ground. Old vines is not a legal term it is generally accepted that vines over 40 years old can be called Old Vine.
A commercial wine vineyard from Napa may pull out vines that are over 25 years old. The crop is very valuable and they wish is ensure all the vines are operating at peak production. Some of the vines are constantly being pulled and others are replaced.
Old Vine Zinfandel was not in as great of demand and was not selling at a high enough price to make replanting economically viable. Vines that may not have been highly prized are now sought after.
The Grateful Dead started in San Francisco, not too far from Lodi, so while they are not hometown heroes they do have a long history with the general area.
The Gnarly Head Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel 2022-Grateful Dead Edition has a label made from holographic foil and may even glow in the dark under a black light, I don’t have a black light to test it.
This Zinfandel has very basic production notes, but they do mention the racked wine on French and American oak. Racking means transferring the juice from one vessel to another. Does racking on oak mean barrels are used or does it mean something else? At $7.99 as long as it tastes good the method is not important. The alcohol content is 14.5% which is common for a ZInfandel wine.
The Gnarly Head Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel 2022-Grateful Dead Edition Tasting Notes
The color is strawberry jam red. The nose is smokey, with black cherry, a shot of spice, jammy raspberry, red Twizzlers, and blueberry. The Gnarly Head Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel 2022-Grateful Dead Edition is smooth and jammy upfront and the the pepper and the spice kick in.
This Zinfandel tastes like blackberry, ripe black cherry, a slap of interesting spice, dusty tannins, mocha, plum, black pepper, and cranberry.
The tannins do their job and add structure and the acidity is balanced allowing the flavors to fully unfold.
The Summary
- The Gnarly Head Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel 2022-Grateful Dead Edition is the first Zinfandel I have tasted recently that I liked.
- The style had been to smooth the Zin out and add a bit more sweetness than I prefer.
- I like them fruit-forward with spice and structure and this one does that very well.
