Turley Deaver Ranch Zinfandel 2021

Despite the overwhelming number of Zinfandel producers in the U.S., the MVP of carrying the varietal’s reputation may very well belong to Larry Turley, who has spent the last thirty years in California dedicating his days to preserving and furthering Zinfandel’s cause. So much so that since the co-founder of Frog’s Leap Winery first left to start his own winery in 1993, he has built a portfolio that includes 47 wines across 50 vineyards with 29 of them dedicated to the Zin varietal!

Today, his protege, winemaker Tegan Passalacqua, (a noted Zinfandel and Petite Sirah specialist in his own regard), is the man tasked with overseeing the entire winemaking operation. On top of that, Tegan and his wife started their own brand, Sandlands concentrating on making lesser championed wines. Sound like a lot? You don’t even know. Wine Spectator pointed out that in the 2017 vintage alone, Tegan made 49 different wines from 13 different counties in California under the Turley label, and another dozen wines for Sandlands.

The Deaver Ranch Zinfandel is the newest selection in the Turley portfolio. 2020 was the first vintage in Amador County and Turley found a perfect site that dates back to the 1920’s where the vines are all planted in grante and quartz-rich soils. This is a gorgeous wine that sees 15 months in barrel in 80% used oak. The expression on it is pretty incredible.