With a profoundly perfumed nose, the palate is rich with raspberry and mulberry underscored by a bit of cinnamon and white pepper. The final blend is 80% Zinfandel, 20% Petite Sirah. There’s restraint and elegance here: it isn’t a big, bruiser Zinfandel. Not to be challenged by the below-average rainfall that was the signature of the 2014 vintage, this wine is just plain delicious to drink. The winery has been Certified Organic since 1988, and tends its dry-farmed vineyards with a biodynamic approach that favours crop rotation and an array of manures and composts over manufactured fertilizers and herbicidal weed control.Īs the average age of Frog’s Leap’s dry-farmed Zinfandel vines reaches 35 years, the fruit from these vines is reaching new heights of complexity and finesse. It’s a winery with a literal mission statement that challenges the wisdom of growth for growth’s sake, reaching for balance instead. The foundation of Frog’s Leap as a winery is sustainability. These principles form the foundation of Frog’s Leap Zinfandel. In other words, the help of other varietals reveals the Zinfandel grape’s true flavours. You can’t use this stuff to light your barbecue. Maybe it’s that they found early inspiration for Zinfandel from the incredible Zins of the 1940s and 1950s: field blends of Petite Sirah, Carignan, and sometimes Napa Gamay all picked at ripeness added colour, aromatics and earthy complexity. Some of these monster wines command monster prices based on their BIG alcohol, BIG flavours, and BIG bottles. Frog’s Leap Zin is different. John Williams and Paula Moschetti, the winemakers at Frog’s Leap, are well aware that the monster Zinfandels of the 1970s are alive and well.

Frog leap wine