Cline Old Vine Zinfandel – A Whole Lot Behind the Label

When you see a bottle of wine on a shelf, you often don’t know the full story behind the wine. Many consumers find themselves deciding whether or not to buy a wine simply based on the label. But sometimes there’s a lot more behind the label you wouldn’t know unless you looked into it. Such is the case with wines from Cline Family Cellars in California.

In a world where more and more wines are produced by gigantic wine conglomerates, Cline is still a family-owned operation — yet it’s one with significant scale. If you’re shopping for a zinfandel in the United States chances are good that you’ll come across one from Cline. But despite this scale, they don’t compromise quality.

I’m also intrigued by the effort the producers of this wine put into sustainability. I often hear wine producers tout the fact that they employ sustainable farming practices, but seldom does the substance of those efforts appear as pronounced as it is with Cline. One of the founders of Cline Family Cellars, Fred Cline, and his soil manager, Bobby Cannard, are co-founders of the Green String farming method, a natural approach to farming which is used in all Cline-owned vineyards. The two also co-founded Green String Farm, a diverse 140 acre farm in Petaluma, California where these sustainable practices are used to produce other fruits and vegetables.

These are all things you would never know from glancing at a bottle of wine sitting on the shelf.

You also won’t know what the wine tastes like from glancing at the label. But I’m here to share that with you.

Ripe fruit and spices abound on the nose of this wine, with aromas such as vanilla, strawberry, plum, black pepper and baking spices. The palate delivers concentrated ripe strawberry, plum and black pepper flavors, with a decent mouthfeel and enough acidity to give you a slight pucker. The finish is very long with lingering vanilla and fruit flavors.

Wine: Cline Old Vine Zinfandel
Varieties: Zinfandel
Vintage: 2017
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 86
Average price: $12.00
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.