Dear Friends,
I figured it was high time to introduce myself, seeing as how I’ve been writing to you all for nearly eight years now. I’m Christina Turley, Larry’s oldest daughter (there’s four of us—that’s what the four stars on the capsules & corks represents!) and I’m the Director of Sales at Turley. Together with our winemaker Tegan Passalacqua, I compose these fair missives, as well as the tasting notes and many of the emails you receive as well. So, hello! Nice to meet you, and if we haven’t already, I look forward to sharing a glass with you one day!
Tegan & I taste through the wines for each release multiple times, often in groups that include the mailing list and tasting room staffs, and of course Larry, the big cheese himself. Like much of what we do, it’s a collaborative effort—especially helpful now, considering this fall release now has SEVENTEEN separate wines! For those of you keeping track at home, that’s one more than last year. That’s right, please help us welcome an extraordinary new addition to the Turley family, the DuPratt Vineyard Zinfandel! Planted pre-Prohibition on its original rootstock up 1500 feet on Mendocino Ridge, DuPratt is Turley’s 1st bottling from Mendocino County. It’s an incredibly unique site—see the full tasting note below for details. Can you tell we’re excited?!
In fact, “excited” barely covers our feelings about the 2016 vintage. This was the year we welcomed the long overdue return to “normal” rainfall in California. The wines show more prettiness, and are slightly more relaxed (though still very powerful) than the distress we saw in years previous; imagine an unperturbed Bruce Lee. He’s laid back, sure, but all that power’s still there, simmering right beneath the surface. (As always, this excellent analogy courtesy of Tegan).
Where the brutal climate has dominated the past few vintages, in 2016 the sites themselves were allowed to really strut their stuff. Indeed, I found the word “distinctive” popping up repeatedly in my notes. Each of the vineyards in ’16 have neatly distinguished themselves from one another, and the individual wines are more truly, classically themselves. This was the most Fredricks Fredricks, the most Zampatti Zampatti, that we’ve had in recent memory. These wines taste how I feel after the first full night’s sleep in ages: healthy, well-rested, and actually, definitively, myself.
Finally, if you’re looking for more light reading to inspire you while you peruse the notes below, I strongly suggest this poem, “Bottle of Wine” by Carl Dennis.
Old Vines Young Love,
Christina Turley & Tegan Passalacqua
Turley Wine Cellars