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. Joel eventually sold Ravenswood to Constellation. I recall going to Ravenswood every August in the mid nineties for the release of their Single Vineyard Zins with the intent of securing coveted bottles of Old Hill, Dickerson, Cooke and Belloni. 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.
Planted in the early 1900’s this head pruned vineyard is a traditional planting of Zinfandel interplanted with Carignane, Petite Sirah, Mataro and Alicante Bouchet. The vineyard is situated in Contra Costa County and farmed by Tom Del Barba.
Purple in color. 14.7% ABV. Savory nose of black and blue fruits, roasted herbs and flowers. Medium to full bodied with mouth watering acidity. Tremendous structure and concentration with rustic fruits and impeccable balance. Blackberry, blueberry and cracked black pepper on the palate. The finish is long with notable tannins. Delicious Matro crafted by the master of Zinfandel. I’ll open another bottle in 2030.
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 2025 vintage set of wines will released be early next year.
I recently visited with Joel and wrote about it in The 2021 Once & Future Zins with Joel Peterson in Bedrock Vineyard.