A bottle of 2023 Estate Zinfandel

BLACK SEARS · HOWELL MOUNTAIN

2023 Black Sears Estate Zinfandel

$80.00
The 2023 Estate Zinfandel comes from the same twelve-acre, head-trained, dry-farmed block planted in 1975 — old St. George rootstock, bud wood from the historic Hayne Vineyard in St. Helena, atop an old apple orchard at 2,400 feet on Howell Mountain. The most elevated Zinfandel site in the entire AVA. The 2023 growing season brought brightness and lift — a wine that feels lighter on its feet than previous vintages while losing none of the earthiness and minerality that defines this block. The vineyard's 48th vintage.
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The 2023 opens with cherry and roses on the nose, evolving into eucalyptus, vanilla, and white pepper. Bright and light on the palate despite the numbers — fresh red fruit with an herbal, earthy accompaniment underneath. Bing cherries, strawberries, orange zest, and black pepper on the mid-palate, then a finish that is all mineral, earthiness, and mountain spice. The flavors of a mountaintop forest whose thirst has, at last, been extinguished. The 2023 is the most approachable vintage from this block in recent memory.

Leg of lamb over rosemary, thyme, and garlic, sautéed spinach, brown sugar-glazed carrots, and fingerling potatoes, followed by a cherries jubilee flambéed with kirsch. Set the volume to a festive 7 and drop the needle on Talking Heads' and Brian Eno's masterpiece Remain in Light, and let the water hold you down. Then open Tony Tulathimutte's Rejection and ponder whether things are so completely absurd now that truth and irony both could be obsolete within a generation.

Vintage
2023
Varietal
Zinfandel
Appellation
Howell Mountain AVA, Napa Valley
Vineyard block
Black Sears Estate
Elevation
2,400 feet
Winemaker
Thomas Rivers Brown
Harvest date
October 10, 2023
Bottling date
September 2025
Farming
Organic/Biodynamic (totally uncertified)
Aging
22 months French Oak, 1/2 new, 1/2 year-old
ABV
14.8%
Acidity
5.9 g/L
pH
3.78
Drinking window
2025–2035

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A bottle of 2023 Estate Zinfandel
Bottle of Black Sable Estate wine on a table with glasses and a basket.

The Zinfandel

Most of Howell Mountain has been replanted to Cabernet over the past few decades. The economics are straightforward — Cabernet commands exponentially higher prices, and the math is hard to argue with.

We have argued with it anyway.

This twelve-acre block was planted in 1975 on old St. George rootstock, bud wood from the historic Hayne Vineyard in St. Helena, atop an old apple orchard at 2,400 feet. Head-trained. Dry-farmed. It is the most elevated Zinfandel site in the Howell Mountain AVA and a vineyard that will never, ever be planted in the Napa Valley again.

Visitors come up the mountain for the Cabernet. They taste the Zinfandel and go quiet. We have heard some version of "I didn't know a Zin could taste like this" more times than we can count.

Some things are worth keeping. We intend to keep this one.

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Every wine we make comes from the same 24 acres on Howell Mountain. Different varietals, different blocks - the same wild, specific place.

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