Puccioni Old Vine Zin Reviews - Good Stuff

We wanted to share with you some recent reviews we have gotten for our 2004 Puccioni Old Vine Zinfandel . The Connoisseur's Guide liked the wine and gave it a puff - which means they consider it to be an outstanding wine. The Wine Enthusiast gave the wine a 90 score and liked the rich character the wine offers. We are appreciative that we have been able to recieve these types of reviews - but our hope is that each of you who drink this wine get more than just the flavors or tastes or remember the scores - but that you take pleasure and time to enjoy each and every sip and in some way we have helped you make life just a little better. And of course its nice to know people have been tasting wine from these vineyards for over 100 years. All The Best!

Glenn Proctor

Appreciate any comments.

Harvest 2006 Puccioni Vineyards

The 2006 Harvest at Puccioni Vyds has begun. We harvested the Nicoletti blk and the Old Back Blk at the Puccioni Ranch and we also harvested Zinfandel from the Buchignani Ranch. Just to make the day more fun we also harvested the Lambert Bridge Vyds Petite Sirah on the same day. As you can see the whole family participated.
(Laurie, Joshua, and Glenn)

New Release 2004 Puccioni Old Vine Zinfandel

It is here!!

We have just released our 2004 Puccioni Old Vine Dry Creek Zinfandel. We have gotten some excellent comments on the wine with our early tastings. We are very excited about the wine and know you will enjoy it. Click on the title above to order our wine. Salute!

Puccioni 2004 "Old Vine" Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley

Vineyard: Puccioni Vineyard in the hills above Dry Creek Valley. Zinfandel grapes came from the Old Block and the Nicoletti Ranch. The Old Block is 90-100 years old and the Nicoletti Ranch is 50-60 years old. Both blocks are head-trained and dry farmed. These blocks were planted by my great grandfather and grandfather. The Old Block was harvested on September 13^th at 25.2 brix and the Nicoletti Ranch on September 30th at 24.2 brix. This was blended at 18% with Petite Sirah from Lambert Bridge Vineyards in Dry Creek Valley harvested on September 12th at 23.8 brix.

Winemaking: The grapes were cold soaked for three days to promote extraction and concentration. It was then fermented in ¾ ton open top fermenters and hand-punched 3x per day for maximum development of color and varietal flavors. The wine was direct pressed to barrels composed of 70% older French and 30% new American Oak where it finished Malo-Lactic fermentation. The wine was aged for 17 months in Barrel, bottled in the spring of 2006 and is now being released.

Tasting Notes: Aromas of dark berries with hints of cedar and spice, complex flavors of raspberry and blackberry and notes of chocolate, creamy oak and black pepper spice in the finish. Alcohol 14.9 %, TA .66, PH 3.86

2004 Puccioni Zinfandel Release - Aug 15

We are very excited!! We will be releasing our 2004 Puccioni Old Vine Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley on Aug 15th. A newsletter will be getting to our Puccioni Mules in the next week. We hope you enjoy the wine - we have gotten some wonderful comments on it .

It will be on a first come first serve basis so get your orders in !!

Thanks Glenn

Puccioni Vineyards - Summer

It has been awhile since we have had a chance to put up a new post. Things have been busy at Puccioni Vineyards. THE 2004 Old Vine Zinfandel will be released in August 2006 - get your orders in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see we have a group of very tired guard dogs - Muddy and Habu - that make sure no one gets too close to our Old Vine Zinfandel grapes. This is the OLD BLOCK with 100 year old vines - so these dogs need to be on their toes (you can see we added drip recently to the old block - we only use it once or twice a year during heat spells - we needed it this year).

Things look very good with our old vines - they are growing well - we have suckered each vine removing unwanted shoots to open up the vine to light and air and reduce the crop - we have also gone through by hand and removed laterals in the fruit zone and removed wings on the clusters. Wings are parts of the Zinfandel cluster that can lead to too much congestion in the vine and cause uneven color - removing the wings help improve the quality.

Also as we are getting excited about the quality of fruit that will come off our old vines we are also replanting parts of our ranch - as we tend these young vines we are very excited about the great fruit we will get off these new vineyards in a few years. It is all old clone Zinfandel and we are also putting in a small sections of Alicante Bouchet and Petite Sirah. All varieties we have grown on this property for over 100 years. Here is a picture of the young vines in the foreground and the OLD BLOCK Zinfandel in the back.



We know you will be enjoying new Puccioni Zinfandel from these new blocks in a few years - All the hillside blocks will be head trained - just like we have always done at Puccioni Vineyards - we can't wait to taste the wine!!!!!!!!

Thank you for supporting Puccioni Vineyards and being stubborn about our wine.

Glenn

Vinography Wine Review

Alder at Vinography.com - a very well respected and written blog gave us a nice write-up and review. Here are his comments on our 2003 - to read entire article please click on the title above. We appreciate your support!!
Glenn

Tasting Notes:
A medium garnet color in the glass, this wine has a candied nose of blueberries, and blackberries with a slight piney note to them. In the mouth it is medium bodied with a nice mouthfeel and excellent acidity. This acid, coupled with a nice, light tannic structure keeps the blackberry flavors from becoming too jammy (it probably helps that someone didn't let the grapes dry out too much on the vines) so that the overall wine has a lighter, less common style for Sonoma Zinfandels. The finish is moderate in length and pleasant.

Food Pairing:This is a great wine for grilling -- I'd love to drink it (just slightly chilled) with grilled sausages on a hot day.

Overall Score: 9

The Vines Are Growing - 2004 Wine is Almost Ready

It is May and the vines are growing. The season got off to a late start given all the late spring - specifically April - rains we had this year. It was a wet one - at our ranch we totaled over 88 inches of rain. Everything held up fine though. We have just started suckering our old vines - we go through and remove any unwanted shoot growth - this concentrates the growth with those shoots that have clusters and ensures good ripening and fruit exposure. We will also be sulfur dusting the vineyard - this is an organic way of preventing any powdery mildew developing on the vines [the picture is of my grandfather - Louie - dusting by hand in the 1970's] On our young vineyard - the new vines are just growing from a long winter. We are training them up the stake now - the first 3 years of a vines life are the most important - a little like raising a child - they need good roots.

The 2004 Puccioni Old Vine Zinfandel is slowly bottle aging and we expect to be releasing it at the end of June or mid July. IT IS ALMOST READY!! We are very excited about the wine - it has great concentration and intense rasberry/blackberry fruit. If you have signed up for the Puccioni Mules we will let you know when it is ready. If you have not - go to our website www.puccionivineyards and sign up for the "Puccioni Mules". You can pre-order the 2004 now by also going to our site. Thank you to all for your support!!

We will be doing a few Puccioni hats and shirts - let us know if you are interested and we can make them available to all.

Glenn

Silver Medal winner at Dallas Morning News wine competition

April 21, 2006
Puccioni "Old Vine" 2003 Zinfandel wins a silver medal in the Dallas Morning News wine competition.
Multimedia presentation is here
http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spe/2006/wine/

Puccioni Vineyards featured in American Vineyards publication

Sustaining a Family Legacy in Dry Creek Valley "Glenn Proctor leads two lives"
By Dan Clarke
We are excited about the article just published in the March issue of American Vineyard.
Use the link above to retrieve the entire article from our website.
www.puccionivineyards.com

Our Wine Label - Philippe Becker Designs

We cannot say enough about Philippe Becker Designs in San Francisco. They helped us in designing our label. They were wonderful to work with and their team outlined the process, gave us time targets, and produced some wonderful options and concepts for us to consider. We would recommend that anyone looking for a top notch design firm to work on wine labels or any other designs should give Philippe and David Becker a call at PBD. Let them know the guys with the Mule on their label recommended you.

Philippe Becker Design Inc.
612 Howard Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, CA 94105
T 415 348 0054 F 415 348 0063
E info@pbdsf.com Web www.pbdsf.com

Puccioni Vineyards Update

Good Morning - we have just sold out of our 2003 Puccioni Zinfandel Old Vine Dry Creek - all 96 cases- the response was great and we appreciate all the support from our friends, family, and retail partners. We will release the 2004 Puccioni Zinfandel in June - you can begin ordering the 2004 on our website. We will have approx 230 cases of the 2004 - get your order in now! You can still buy the 2003 at the our retail partners - see the previous post or our website under - Find It.

We just finished pruning our old vine Zinfandel at the Puccioni Ranch and Vineyard. The winter has been a little unusual - we had spring like conditions into Jan and Feb and then recently we have had periods of winter cold - yesterday you could see snow scattered on the hilltops around Healdsburg. The vines should start pushing out in the next few weeks. We are excited that spring is almost here.

The 2004 Puccioni Zinfandel is just going into bottles. Our 2005 Puccioni Zinfandel has finished malolactic fermentation and is still in barrels. We will be racking it again in a few weeks and then potentially blending it with some Petite Sirah and putting it back in barrel. We are usually aging our Zinfandel in barrel for 14-16 months. www.puccionivineyards.com

BE A MULE - STUBBORN ABOUT PUCCIONI WINES

Glenn

Awards/Reviews

2006 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition
Silver Medal - 2003 Puccioni Old Vine Zinfandel
http://www.winejudging.com/medal_winners_2006/412.htm

2006 Dallas Morning News Wine Competition
Silver Medal - 2003 Puccioni Old Vine Zinfandel

Taste California Travel - Wine of the Week
February 16, 2006
“Bright, spicy berry aromas and flavors with black pepper background in both departments. Plenty of depth and power but lively, rather than ponderous. This is a top-quality, small-production Zin,”“Serve with braised lamb shanks on a cool evening or with grilled T-bones for a summer barbecue.”
Puccioni
Dry Creek Valley
2003 “Old Vine” Zinfandel $28
http://www.tastecaliforniatravel.com/pick-of-the-week.htm

Stop by for a visit at these fine establishments and ask for Puccioni Zinfandel!!

Wineshops

Beltramo's
1540 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025
650 325 2806
http://www.beltramos.com/

Traverso's
106 B Street
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
707 542 2530
http://www.traversos.com/

Rancho Cellars
23640 Carmel Rancho Blvd
Carmel, CA 93923
831 625 5646
http://www.ranchocellars.com/

Russian River Wine Co.
132 Plaza St
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707 433 0490
http://www.russianriverwineco.com/

K + L Wine Merchants
3005 El Camino Real
Redwood City, CA 94061
800 247 5987
www.klwines.com




Restaurants

Willi's Wine Bar
4404 Old Redwood Hwy
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
707 526 3096
http://www.williswinebar.net/

Ravenous
420 Center St
Healdsburg, CA 95448
707 431 1302

Fleur De Lys
777 Sutter St
San Francisco, CA 94109
415 673 7779
http://www.fleurdelyssf.com/