Les Lunes Wine Zinfandel 2016

The Venturi Vineyard sits in Calpella, a small farming community just north of Ukiah in Mendocino County. Larry Venturi is the third generation of his family to tend this site, which was planted in the late 1940s. The vines are head-trained and dry-farmed on Pinole gravelly loam soils — a former Russian River bed underlain by sandstone, shale, and quartz — under certified organic practices.

Les Lunes winemakers Shaunt Oungoulian and Diego Roig lease and farm their own vineyards throughout Northern California. Their cellar in Orinda is deliberately isolated so native yeasts from the vineyard drive fermentation without contamination from outside strains. No additions are made beyond a minimal touch of sulfur assessed barrel by barrel before bottling. The wine is unfined and unfiltered.

The Mendocino County growing season around Ukiah averages 268 days, with warm days and cool Pacific-influenced nights pulling through a gap in the Coastal Range. That diurnal swing preserves the natural acidity that keeps this wine fresh despite its ripe, brambly fruit character. At 13% ABV, it sits at the lighter end of California Zinfandel.

On the palate, expect strawberry and cranberry alongside notes of forest floor and briar. The wine has a mineral edge that reflects the gravelly, river-stone soils of the Venturi site, and finishes with clean acidity rather than residual sweetness or heat.