The 2007 vintage at the Papera Vineyard was a special one as the vineyard itself was rescued by Stuart Coulson. Prior to this the vineyard has passed thru multiple hands with it finally coming to rest in the hands of a large, multi-national wine corporation that planned to tear out the vineyard and replant it to something more profitable. It was at this point that Stuart stepped in and saved the vineyard by purchasing it and investing the necessary time, effort, and money to reinvigorate this wonderful piece of land.
For Novy, this also meant that we were able to get more fruit. We now source from over 2.5 acres worth of vines (compared to less than an acre previously) and share the vineyard with Carlisle and Williams-Selyem wineries.
This additional acreage obviously gave us quite a bit more fruit (though yields were less than 2 tons per acre) and provided us with our first real opportunity to experiment with different yeasts and fermentation vats. In addition, we picked the vineyard twice, once on October 5 with the second pick (made up mainly of younger vines) waiting until October 24 to be harvested.
We fermented the wine in a combination of 1-ton and half-ton bins using a combination of three different yeasts. Following the conclusion of fermentation we pressed the wine directly to barrel using gravity. The wine was allowed to go thru spontaneous malolactic fermentation and ultimately a selection of 51% of the barrels was used for the final wine.
The 2007 Novy Papera Vineyard Zinfandel is bigger and a bit more earthy than previous Papera vintages, reminding us a bit more of a Chateauneuf-du-Pape. With currant and black cherry flavors on the nose, but hints of tar, oak, and bramble on the palate, and then good levels of natural acidity, this is a Zinfandel that will truly benefit from a couple of years of age.
