2022 A. Rafanelli, Zinfandel, Estate Grown, Dry Creek Valley AVA, Sonoma County.
There’s a lot to admire from Shelly Rafanelli’s 2022 Estate Dry Creek Zinfandel, not an easy vintage, and I loved the rich hedonistic textural side, pure ripe fruit and pretty subtle aromatics with slightly retrained alcohol that gives this wine a lovely balanced feel with well judged oak as well. The full bodied palate fills out in the glass and this dark opaque purple Zinfandel, which includes about 11% Petite Sirah, delivers loads of black raspberry, deep plum, Italian cherry and black fig fruits, along with brambly spices, dried herbs, lavender, lilacs, grilled fennel and nicely luxurious French oak smokiness, vanilla and cedary framing. The all hand crafted style winemaking here at Rafanelli includes fermentations in small open top tanks with full extraction and cool maceration, after which the Zinfandel then sees between 18 and 22 months in exclusively French wood with about a third new, and the rest in 1 and 2 times filled barrels. Rafanelli explains that the 2022 growing season with a dry winter with rains decreasing after January. The spring in Dry Creek brought windy conditions which caused shatter in the young clusters, and minimal precipitation produced lower yields, leading to the intense color and flavors in the wine. The above normal temperatures in the late Summer jumpstarted the harvest at Rafanelli and they made all the fruit was picked before the record heat wave settled in and caused pruney or over ripe grapes, which led to a finished alcohol of 14.6%, a bit less than normal and retention an appreciated lifting of acidity, not seen by everyone in the vintage. While ready to love now, these Rafanelli wines come with underlying structures that do age well and this one should be a rewarding wine for well over a decade.
The A. Rafanelli Winery and Vineyards was founded by Alberto and Letizia Rafanelli, both Italian immigrants, back in the early 1900’s when they settled in the Healdsburg area with their family, as the winery notes, and started growing grapes and making wine. Things didn’t really get going until after prohibition, but after which their son Americo Rafanelli took over the family business and then moved the winery to its Dry Creek Valley location in the early 1950s, where he focused on premium grape growing. Most of the grapes and or wines were sold off until the early 1970s when he started his iconic A. Rafanelli label with mainly Zinfandel offerings, along with a very limited bottling of Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery became a cult hit with California wine lovers, especially under David A. Rafanelli, who certainly brought this little known winery to the world’s attention with a series of outstanding wines, that rivaled all the top Zin producers, most notability the likes of Ridge, Turley and Biale, putting Dry Creek in the spotlight. David, who got his degree in Viticulture from UC Davis, really brought quality and direction to Rafanelli, with his mid to late 1990s bottlings being absolute stars and that has continued to current releases, with his daughter Shelly making the wines. She came to the winery after graduating from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, with their excellent enology program, and worked side-by-side with her father until becoming the head winemaker in 2000. She and her husband Craig Fehlman, who manages all of their vineyards, are carrying on the family tradition, and taking the wines to the next level, which is no mean feat. This 2022 Estate Zinfandel is absolutely delicious with velvety tannins and if you can find it you’ll be thrilled and I recommend you do so.
($54 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive