Iconic California Zinfandel brand Ravenswood is back after a five-year hiatus, returning a beloved wine label to the market. What’s more, founding winemaker Joel Peterson is consulting on the relaunch. Owner E. & J. Gallo recently released the first new wines, beginning on a modest scale, with just 3,400 cases of four Sonoma County Zins from the 2023 vintage.
The debut encompasses a Dry Creek Valley bottling and single-vineyard wines from MacMurray Ranch, Monte Rosso and Teldeschi vineyards. The Dry Creek Valley Zin has the largest production, with about 1,900 cases, and it retails for around $27. Production of the single-vineyard bottlings is about 500 cases each, with Teldeschi and MacMurray selling for around $50 and Monte Rosso for $70.
A History of No Wimpy Wines
A volume of under 4,000 cases is quite a departure from Ravenswood’s heyday, when the winery produced nearly 1 million cases annually. Much of that was the value-oriented Vintners Blend bottling, which paid the bills and allowed the winery to make prestigious old-vine, single-vineyard Zinfandels like Old Hill Ranch and Dickerson.
After founding Ravenswood in 1976, Peterson nurtured the winery for three decades, during good times and bad. That first vintage he made 327 cases and he admits, “I never expected to be commercially successful.” His business partner, Reed Foster, made that happen. Foster assembled a limited partnership of 15 investors. “They were all in their 50s and 60s, but they all loved wine, and they didn't care whether we made any money, which was perfect for the time, because we didn't make any money.”
By the late 1990s, the investors wanted to cash out, so Peterson first tried taking Ravenswood public. When that failed to raise enough money, the partners voted to sell to Constellation in 2001. Peterson was the only one on the board who voted against it. He joined the Constellation board after the sale, and he kept a hand in winemaking and promotions for several years, but didn’t always see eye-to-eye with the corporate mentality and, as production grew, he transitioned out.
Gallo acquired Ravenswood in 2021 from Constellation as part of a $1.7 billion deal that included more than 30 other wine and spirits brands. Constellation had bought Ravenswood from Peterson and his partners for $148 million. It expanded production but eventually lost interest in the brand as sales declined. While its deal with Gallo was pending, it closed the production facility and tasting room in Sonoma Valley and allowed contracts to expire on most of its old-vine vineyards in 2020.
A Ravenswood Rebirth
When Gallo approached Peterson about reviving the brand, he was dubious. After many long discussions with Matt Gallo and others in the company, he decided that Gallo had the right intentions and a solid game plan. His one caveat: “Don’t F it up!”
Michael Eddy-Cort, Gallo’s senior director of winemaking, understands some of Peterson’s initial caution. “You look at a lot of the data around this project, and you could very quickly ask yourself, ‘Why is Gallo interested in this? Zinfandel is a declining category.’ And Ravenswood is a brand that has, frankly, suffered some setback in terms of perception.”
Stylistically, the new Ravenswood Zinfandels take inspiration from the past while looking to the future, Eddy-Cort told Wine Spectator. Known for its motto “No Wimpy Wines,” Ravenswood maintains its cult following. Consumer sentiment toward the brand remains positive, according to Gallo surveys, particularly with wine drinkers over 40.
“I’m not personally engaged in the sense of making money from it or worrying about the details of winemaking,” said Peterson. “It's really fun to see how Gallo is taking this on. Instead of trying to do a Vintners Blend-like project, they've chosen to do the wines that I think are probably most important for resurrecting Zinfandel.”
The Beauty of Old-Vine Zinfandel
The threads that tie the old and new Ravenswood together are the vineyard sources. Ravenswood had previously bottled single-vineyard Zins from Monte Rosso and Teldeschi, but MacMurray Ranch is a new addition. Both Monte Rosso and MacMurray Ranch vineyards are owned by Gallo.
“What I want to do is capture the right character of Zinfandel,” said Eddy-Cort, “but also be mindful not to slip into that territory of where Zin got a bad rap. So, I want wines that have freshness and light to them, as opposed to dried fruit and Port flavors.”
“If you can take a single vineyard,” he added, “and capture the personality of that vineyard, but also have it clearly reflect the American Viticultural Area (AVA) that it sits in, you've got everything lined up beautifully. And so in my mind, Teldeschi should taste like Teldeschi, but it should also taste like the epitome of Dry Creek.”
The revival of Ravenswood was originally planned for the 2022 vintage, but the extreme heat waves of that growing season made the winemaking team rethink. “We said, ‘This isn't the vintage to start on,’” Eddy-Cort explained. “It wasn’t a very popular message to send, but we've had a lot of support in doing this.” Ultimately, the company approved postponing the debut a year.
Peterson has no financial involvement in the new Ravenswood. He asked the company to donate his compensation to Zinfandel Advocates & Producers (ZAP), a nonprofit industry organization. “If Gallo is doing Zinfandel, and they're doing it well, and I can help them do it well,” he said, “then that's good for everybody.”
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