The wine world is full of exceptional wines, affordably priced wines and wines that are widely available in stores. But when one wine manages to combine all three attributes, that’s truly exciting and deserves recognition. That’s why Wine Spectator has been honoring a Wine Value of the Year since 2021—and in 2024, the winner was Seghesio’s Sonoma County Zinfandel 2022. But how does the winery do it? Winemaker Andy Robinson took to the Wine Experience stage to share the story behind the label with the crowd, as they sipped the zesty red, full of personality.
The numbers for this California Zinfandel speak for themselves; priced at a wallet-friendly $26 and scoring an outstanding 93 points, 2024’s top value wine was also made in easy-to-find quantities: 112,500 cases for the 2022 vintage.
But making a wine like Seghesio’s Sonoma County Zin isn’t easy, especially under the conditions Northern California faced during the 2021 and 2022 vintages. The lack of rainfall became so dire that the state legislature introduced “curtailment” procedures in 2021 to control water usage. “When droughts happen, typically everyone is asked to use a little less water, and the term ‘curtailment,’ we thought, would just mean a slight reduction in water,” explained Robinson, “but it turned out that we were forced to cease using our wells completely.”
While winemakers had to rapidly adjust in 2021, they felt more prepared for 2022, even with a more intense drought. “We lost access to water in May of 2022, and we were left with really having to focus on balancing the canopy enough to protect the fruit all the way to September,” he said.
Then at harvest, they experienced a heat wave “upwards of 115 degrees in northern Alexander Valley, which is enough to literally cook the grapes on the vine,” said Robinson. His team’s solution: night shifts. “An extensive vineyard crew, hand picking Zinfandel between the hours of 1 a.m. and 9 a.m., allowed us to maximize how much fruit we harvested and bring it in at the coolest temperature possible. All of this helped us preserve freshness in the wine we are drinking today,” he added proudly.
Seghesio’s Sonoma County Zin is a blend of fruit from Alexander Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Russian River Valley. One of Robinson’s non-negotiables is that, every year, each vineyard’s grapes are harvested, fermented and aged separately before being analyzed by the winemaking team and tasted for blending.
Each vineyard brings different characteristics to the final blend. “The Alexander Valley expresses ripe, dark, lush fruit flavors and soft tannins, while in the Dry Creek Valley, we have more prominent black cherry and structured backbone for the wine, and then there is the Russian River Valley, where the fruit lends vibrant acidity and red fruit flavors. All of these notes can be identified readily in this wine,” he rattled off easily.
Not only does the 2024 Wine Value of the Year present a truly outstanding combination of quality and price, it also represents what it means to be terroir-driven. The wine expresses exactly where it has come from, having deep roots in three of Sonoma County’s most distinguished valleys.
“I love that Zinfandel expresses its personality so vividly based on where it’s grown,” says Robinson. “For 2022, our focus was to preserve the balance of the wine, preserve freshness and acidity. Common mistakes we feel have been made in the past with Zinfandel are too many handprints of the winemaker. What we aim to protect is the vitality and the fruit flavors of the wine.” California Zinfandel may often come from old vines, but Seghesio’s 2022 Sonoma County bottling proves that this distinctive variety is still bursting with life.
