2015 Three Wine Company Old Vines Zinfandel Contra Costa County

Matt Cline’s Ancient Vines’ Liquid Gold

Matt Cline’s Three Wine Company is no newcomer at Wine Access. In fact, this spectacular, silken red is the most successful under-$30 Zinfandel in our history. Vintage after vintage, it sells out and garners a bevy of 4- and 5-star raves.

These same vines have attracted Turley, Ridge, and Bedrock, but Matt Cline’s 2015 Three Wine Company Old Vine Zinfandel packs California’s most exclusive Zinfandel fruit from Contra Costa County into a bargain bottle that bests them all.

It’s the vines that make this wine so special. Rooted in Delhi sandy soils and planted before America had heard of Television, by people who wouldn’t live to see Ford’s invention of the Model T, they have lasted—generation after generation—and today, continue to eke out tiny berries that translate to supreme concentration in the glass, balanced by Matt’s deft touch which imparts elegance and balance.

Positively youthful, bright primary fruit flavors dance across the spectrum from plum to raspberry, blackberry, and ripe cherry. A California native, winemaker Matt Cline knew he’d stepped onto vineyard gold when he first began cultivating the ancient vines that pepper Contra Costa County. Standing amidst vines whose trunks reach skyward from soils that look more like beach sand than fertile earth, curving around themselves in shapes that defy trellising, irrigation, and modern viticulture as we know it, these vineyards are a window to the past.

Cline has fought urban development for decades and saved many of these vineyards because their twisted trunks provide a window to the region’s storied agricultural past, when California’s original Zinfandels were passed around dinner tables from coast to coast. Today, the same exceptionally well-drained soils and age combine to stress the vines, driving high concentration, while yields top out at a mere 2.5 or 3.5 tons of fruit per acre—a fraction of the yield of most vineyards.

The result is a red blend that packs intense color and an invigorating spectrum of fruit flavor into a humble bottle. Sourced from Cline’s “Big 3” vineyard sites—Evanghelo (125 years old), Bigelow (100+ years old), Mazzoni–Live Oak (132 years old)—plus a smattering of grapes from 130-year-old sites, this is anything but “average.” Hints of Petit Sirah, Carignane, Mataro, and Alicante Bouschet add nuance and balance to Cline’s powerful, inky Zinfandel just as they did in the Golden State’s original field blends.

Big, bold, and sumptuously rich, Cline’s bottles are a delicious sip of the past that yield serious vinous pleasure in the present.

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 15.40%
• 15 mins
• Drink Up
• 76% Zinfandel9% Carignan9% Petite Sirah5% Mataro
• Serving temperature – 60°
• Cork