Zinfandel, Shake Ridge Ranch

Shake Ridge Ranch is the culmination of experience, thoughtful design, and hard work. This bold and warmly appealing wine offers classic blackberry and black-cherry flavors; hints of chocolate and vanilla add to all the ripe black fruits. 

Considering it didn’t start yielding fruit until 2005, Shake Ridge Ranch has gained an uncommon stature among California’s vineyards. Due to meticulous vineyard practices and sustainable farming, its grapes continue to bring attention to the Sierra Foothills, including elite vintners throughout Napa and Sonoma. 

"Over the years we've sold fruit to so many top winemakers with so many different styles using the same fruit. You want to say it's all about the fruit, but when you taste these wines you realize the impact of the winemakers.” - said Ann Kraemer, Vineyard Manager of Shake Ridge  Ranch, in an interview with The Wine Writer.

A sentiment that transcends to our Estate Winemaker, Mark Fowler, a second generation foothill winemaker who Ann mentored while he worked at Shake Ridge Ranch years ago. 

94 points - Wine Enthusiast 

Reviewed by the Wine Spies

If Namedropping ever made it to the Olympics (hey, Breakdancing did!) this is Gold medal material no doubt.

MELKA! Koschitzky! Shake Ridge (fruit for Keplinger, Turley, Buccella!) And 94 points from Wine Enthusiast!

Maybe you’ve had their sensational old vine Zins from previous features. Like those, this Reserve bottling comes packed with power, complexity, and satisfying deep fruit character - without the sappy, cloying, one-dimensional jammy style that lesser examples bring. It’s sure to satisfy the lovers of big, hearty reds - all while paying nearly 50% less than the release price!

Philippe Melka stands atop the California winemaking pyramid, having left his mark on countless wines and wineries, producing innumerable high-scoring gems for places like Seavey, Lail, Vineyard 29, Dana Estates… and Melka shares Andis’ winemaking with another key player, Maayan Koschitzky who honed his skills at the likes of Screaming Eagle and Dalla Valle.

And what better site to pull one from than Shake Ridge high in the Sierra Foothills.

Napa Wine Project has the story of arguably one of California’s most desirable sites: “A remarkable vineyard, Shake Ridge Ranch is located in Gold Country. Viticulturist Ann Kraemer’s property still has remnants of old mining activity including a shaft tunneled into the side of a hill through quartz rock. Unique to her vineyard are the numbers of those who source grapes - through her connections in the Napa Valley word spread about the quality of fruit coming from Shake Ridge and today she sells to 30+ producers of which nearly half are from the Napa Valley. Select producers from Napa who work closely with Ann include Keplinger, Turley and Buccella…”

This Zin is downright sexy stuff. Intense black and blue fruits dominate the undertone of deep red berries baked into a wholesome pie with pinches of sweet spices from prosperous nuances of new oak. While this hits you on the head with a flavor sledgehammer, there are waves of complexity that hint at a cellar-worthy red yearning to show a more serious side over time. Get enough to experience that metamorphosis.

In Somm Journal interview, Lorenzo Muslia of Andis “wonders, ‘Why are people so skeptical and scared to try our wines from this region?’ It took me years to understand that the answer was in the history of what we used to be. We were ‘cursed by the knowledge’ they had about our region, and the only way to break that spell was to make extraordinary wines.”

Extraordinary it is. Abundant, it’s not.