2021 Klinker Brick - Zinfandel Lodi Old Vines (750ml)

Klinker Brick is owned and farmed by the Felten family, longtime Lodi grape growers who spent decades selling fruit to some of Napa and Sonoma's most respected Zinfandel producers before Steve and Lori Felten released their own first vintage in 2000. Today the family manages fifteen individual old-vine Zinfandel blocks across the Mokelumne River appellation, a legacy built on generations of hands-on farming in the heart of Lodi.

These blocks range from roughly 40 to 120 years old and are planted in sandy loam soils, where cooling breezes and fog rolling in from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta help preserve acidity that is unusually high for the region. The extremely low yields typical of century-old vines concentrate flavor, and the wine undergoes barrel fermentation to add structure to Zinfandel's naturally thin skins.

The wine opens with dark berries, coffee, baking spice, and dried potpourri, moving into black currant, huckleberry, coriander, and tobacco leaf on the palate. It finishes dry, with grippy, assertive tannins. Pair it with smoked brisket, grilled bratwurst, or a sharp aged Pecorino.