2016 Linne Calodo Outsider Zinfandel

About 2016 Linne Calodo Outsider Zinfandel:

This wine is an experiment in vineyard terroir and soil intricacies. The zinfandel is sourced from northern facing slopes as well as lower lying areas where the soil is deeper and the temperatures are cooler. These factors produce less acid in the grape, allowing for this wine to gain an edge of spice and earth.

Tasting Notes:

Bacon, berries, and purely decadent. From the Heaton Ranch’s whalebone block comes a wine that is one of a kind. As with every LC wine, the Zinfandel is blended with syrah, mourvedre and graciano for balance. Aged in new and neutral American oak puncheons and 228l cask.

Growing Notes:

Much of what the winemaker does at the Linne Calodo estate vineyard is about un-learning the modern methods of viticulture in favor of what he calls “nature-positive farming”—which hearkens back to when farmers lived within the bounds of their land’s limited resources, relying on natural solutions and manual labor in contrast to chemicals and carbon-burning machines.

These methods are labor and time intensive. They are also unbound to certifications and buzzwords such as “organic” and “sustainable” and “natural.” In fact, they are all of these things, bundled into a curated farming approach that is wholly distinctive to the terroir of Linne Calodo.

Harvest Dates:

Winemaking Notes:

82% Zinfandel, 7% Syrah, 7% Mourvèdre, 4% Graciano. As usual, the bold audacity of Zinfandel is tamed by skillful blending with 82% Zinfandel, 7% Syrah, 7% Mourvèdre, 4% Graciano.

Champion of dry-farmed Zinfandel-driven blends that reflect the terrain and heritage of Paso Robles. And every so often, you might squeeze a white wine out of Winemaker-Owner Matt Trevisan, too.

Nearly all of their wines are grown at the two estates: the main Linne Calodo Vineyard and Stonethrower Vineyard, both located in the mountainous Willow Creek District just 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean. They are also proud to steward the old vine Zinfandel at Cherry Vineyard. The imprint of these terroirs is what gives their wines their own distinct point of view.

About The Winery:

When Matt and Maureen Trevisan started Linne Calodo in 1998, they helped spark the modern wine era in Paso Robles. By the early 2000s, Paso Robles had graduated from unproven to unstoppable, driven largely by Rhône variety blends that earned widespread critical acclaim. Linne Calodo was right in the mix, and the rest is history.

This thirst for the unconventional lives on at Linne Calodo. The common thread among all of their wines can be summed up in one word: intentional. Matt is the polar opposite of the absentee winery owner. He is the farmer, winemaker, cover crop sower, fix-it man, amateur electrician and sheep herder. You can be assured that every Linne Calodo wine is obsessively shepherded from the field to the bottle.