Beekeeper

LearnAboutWine / Wine Cloud Inc CEO Ian Blackburn‘s wine “Beekeeper” was named as “Best Wine at ZAP 2012” by Pierre DuMont, The Piedmont Post!

About the Beekeeper 2009 – our first vintage.

What a place to start!! One of the great Zinfandel vintages of the past 20 years, the 2009 is a blockbuster. The Madrone Spring Vineyard was planted in 1999, with about four acres of Zinfandel and a small amount of Petite Sirah. The vines are now over ten years old and are really starting show their potential. Owned and farmed by the Mauritson Family, the vineyard is a jewel in the family vineyard collection. The fruit for this hillside selection was received on October 14th; tiny berries were de-stemmed into small bunch down boxes, and maceration and fermentation took approximately 15 days. The yields were ideal for Rockpile, about two tons of fruit per acre. Zinfandel, which has a reputation for uneven ripening, came in clean and uniform with great flavors, as did the small amount of Petite Sirah. After 15 months in a mixture of one- to three-year-old French and American oak, the wine has achieved optimal concentration, balance and weight. Rockpile’s natural intensity was magnified by the exotic ripeness of the vintage, and the spectrum of flavors will continue to evolve in the bottle. Bottled on January 23, 2011, the wine benefits from additional cellaring. We apply the labels by hand and pay careful attention to every detail.

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