2021 LYTTON SPRINGS, Ridge. Dry Creek, California

A vineyard of old bush vines in Dry Creek, Sonoma, just north of Healdsburg; cultivated and marketed by Ridge since 1972. There’s an ideal combination of cool, foggy mornings and sunny afternoons, together with gravelly clay soils which retain moisture and help the grapes ripen slowly. All this reins in the otherwise over-prolific Zinfandel vines.

74% Zinfandel, 15% Petite Sirah, 9% Carignan, 2% Mataro; aged for 14 months in American oak (20% new wood).

Paul Draper’s Ridge Vineyards is one of the most respected winer operations in California. Lytton Springs has been fully owned by Ridge since 1991 and now has it’s own (very Eco) winery in the vineyard, where they also make a number of small batch bottling. It is run by the softly spoken but completely authoritative John Olney.

Lytton Spings is drinkable young but always lasts 15 years without fuss.

Pure pleasure.