Joel Peterson founded Ravenswood Winery in 1976 with a focus on Single Vineyard Zinfandel. Ravenswood was immensely successful and over time began producing in excess of a million cases per year. Once & Future is the return to the original vision Joel had for Ravenswood so many years ago – a small project specializing in wines from unique older vineyards. At present time Once & Future makes several Zins along with a Merlot, Mataro and Petite Sirah.
Oakley Road Vineyard is situated in Contra Costa County and was planted in the early 1900’s.
Ruby red in color. 14% ABV. Savory nose of black fruits, plums and coffee. Full bodied with strong acidity. Dark and brooding. Black cherry, black raspberry, barbecued meats and pepper on the palate. Tremendous length on the finish. Awesome Mataro but there is some upside here if you can hang on to your bottles longer than I did. Best over the next 3-5 years.
My rating: 93 points.
I always hesitate to suggest yet another mailing list to my readers but I’ll make an exception here. Sign up soon as I suspect these wines will be hard to come by in the not so distant future. The next release should be early next year.