83% Zinfandel, 7% Petite Sirah, 5% Carignane, 3% Alicante Bouschet, 2% mixed reds

Food pairings: Beef braciole, mushroom sugo and cherry-balsamic pork tenderloin.

Winemaking: The grapes are harvested and sorted by hand, lightly crushed and fermented in small open-top stainless steel tanks, with pneumatic punch-downs for extraction and pump-overs for gentle aeration. After 8 to 12 days on the skins, the free-run wine is drained to barrel to finish alcoholic fermentation and go through malolactic conversion. The wines evolve for 10 months before blending, then return to barrel for five more months to integrate; in all the 2023 spent 14 months in oak, 17% new French and the rest neutral French and American. In 2023 abundant early rainfall saturated the soils, but cool nights, mild afternoons and no extreme heat made for a smooth harvest of high-quality fruit between September 28 and October 18.

Vineyards and terroir: For Seghesio, "Old Vine" means vines at least 50 years old, and the grapes for this wine come from exceptional vineyards that average closer to 75 years. The fruit comes primarily from old head-pruned vineyards on the Dry Creek Valley bench and in the cooler southwest Alexander Valley, whose old, devigorated root systems give smaller crops of more intense fruit, highlighting Zinfandel's spicy character. Seghesio farms its vineyards with regenerative practices such as cover crops and a needs-based approach to spraying.

Family and history: In 1886 Edoardo Seghesio left his family's vineyards in Piedmont for Northern Sonoma County and the Italian Swiss Colony. He married his boss's niece, Angela; the couple bought a home with land, the original Home Ranch, and in 1895 planted the Zinfandel vines that began the family's story, blocks the family still farms today. In 1910 they planted Sangiovese and other Tuscan varieties around the Chianti train station, now the oldest Sangiovese plantings in North America. Seghesio survived Prohibition by selling grapes and juice, later bought the Scatena Brothers Winery in Healdsburg, still its home, and for decades was one of Sonoma County's largest bulk producers. In 1993 the family cut production sharply to focus on quality wines from its own vineyards, becoming one of the world's finest Zinfandel producers. Winemaker Andy Robinson, at Seghesio since 2003, learned Zinfandel under fourth-generation Ted Seghesio, and works with Viticulture Director Ned Neumiller, a great-great-grandson of Edoardo and Angela.

In the pictures: Winemaker Andy Robinson (left) and Viticulture Director Ned Neumiller in the vineyard (photo courtesy of Seghesio Family Vineyards); the Seghesio winery in Healdsburg (photo: Chip Harlan, 2005, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons); and Seghesio vineyards in autumn (photo courtesy of Seghesio Family Vineyards).