Harvest Moon Zinfandel Russian River Valley 2003  750ml Not currently available   Your Shopping Cart: Join one of the Harvest Moon Wine Clubs and save up to 30% on wines!

Vintage & Varietal

2003 Russian River Valley Zinfandel
305 cases. Bottled on August 6, 2005 at Harvest Moon Estate
Alcohol: 15.8% by volume
Technical Data: R.S. = .086; Ph = 3.32; T.A. = .69; V.A. = .065

Grower & Winemaker's Notes

Our 2003 Russian River Valley Zin consists of approximately 65% Estate fruit and the balance grown by neighbors on Olivet and Piner Road. Our 2003 Russian River Valley Zinfandel is a bigger wine than our 2002; in fact all of our wines seem to be “bigger” than the 2002 counterparts. During the first part of September 2003, Mother Nature brought the Russian River Valley 6 days of intense 103 degree days, kicking the fruit into “maturation overdrive”. This hot finish to the vintage allowed for more intense aromatics and fruit flavors on the finish as well as more alcohol.

Tasting Notes

This wine is a local wine. It grew, fermented and aged all within a few miles of the Estate. On the approach, one will find dusty notes on deep, dark cherry aromatics with a sturdy body in the mouth with not-so-subtle notes of blueberry and caramel on the finish. This wine will taste its best from early 2006 and will continue for the next two decades. 

Note:  This wine was in my opinion the worst, most unbalanced (too much booze, too low acid level and wayyyyy too much oak) wine to ever leave our cellar and in 2005, this wine was accidentally submitted to a very prominate Bay Area wine tasting competetion only to receive a "double-gold".  At that point, I knew competitions and the numerical rating system was not for us and thus stopped submitting to all professional paneled competitions.