100% Zinfandel

Food pairings: Roast lamb, duck, roast turkey and chicken, mushroom dishes, herb-crusted roasts, tomato-based pasta, spicy dishes and soft cheeses.

Winemaking: Benovia makes its Zinfandel with Burgundian techniques to produce an elegant, restrained wine that still captures the intensity of the variety. The grapes are cluster sorted, destemmed and berry sorted, fermented in open-top fermenters, and the wine is aged on its fine lees in thin-staved Bordeaux barrels without racking. The 2022 vintage began warm and dry, with a few spring frosts that the vineyard team kept from causing damage; continuing drought kept yields small, while mild temperatures in May, June and July gave deep color, intense fruit and optimal phenolic ripeness. Delicious on release, the wine will benefit from three to seven years in the cellar.

Vineyards and terroir: The fruit comes from Benovia's Cohn Estate Vineyard, one of the few heritage vineyards remaining in Sonoma County. It was first planted in 1970 by Enid Sales and her partner to Pinot Noir and Zinfandel, the two wines they liked to drink, and the Cohn family, who gave the vineyard its name, added more Zinfandel in 1986. Set on a steep, rocky hillside at about 700 feet, hemmed in by redwood forest and looking out over the Russian River Valley from its far northwestern corner, the vineyard has iron-rich red soil, sometimes called "terra rossa", topped with quartz and old riverbed stones that drain well and give wines with minerality. The gnarled, dry-farmed vines produce small, compact clusters with intense fruit and bright acidity.

Winery history: Benovia is a small, family-owned winery in the heart of the Russian River Valley, best known for its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Its name joins those of the fathers of proprietors Mary Dewane and Joe Anderson, Ben Dewane and Novian Anderson. After careers in healthcare, Joe was so moved by a 1993 Williams Selyem Cohn Vineyard Pinot Noir that he and Mary bought the Cohn Vineyard in 2002, then founded Benovia in 2005 with winemaker Mike Sullivan, who had worked under Helen Turley at Landmark and made his name as head winemaker at Hartford Family Winery. Mike now consults, with Adolfo Hernandez as winemaker, and Benovia farms three estate vineyards, with its winery and tasting room in Santa Rosa.

In the pictures: Co-founding winemaker Mike Sullivan in the Benovia barrel room; the hillside Cohn Estate Vineyard at sunset; and the Benovia winery among its vineyards in Santa Rosa (photos courtesy of Benovia Winery).