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.
Teldeschi Vineyard is spread across three ranches on the east bench of Dry Creek Valley. The vineyard dates back to the 1890’s.
Purple in color. 15% ABV. Sublime nose of dark fruits, anise and pepper. Medium to full bodied with perfect acidity. Packed with lush, rich fruits. Black cherry, raspberry liqueur, blood orange and roasted herbs on the palate. Nice length on the finish. There is a little bit of funk present here and it is somewhat distracting. Previous bottles definitely showed better. Best over the next 1-2 years.
My rating: 88 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 sometime next Spring.