Karly Bucks Ten Point Zinfandel 1998

The name of the wine is a play on words. Buck Cobb the owner/winemaker (semi-emeritus) is an avid hunter, often by necessity as the estate vineyards are afflicted with a voracious resident deer population, who despite game fencing, seem to grow and breed at the same rate the freezer is emptied. Ten pointers are as rare in this part of California as ten-point wine, so we deemed it appropriate to name the wine for the particular vineyard and memorialize the buck that formerly ate, slept and entertained ladies in it.

1998 is the second Ten Point Zin. The first 1997 edition caught us totally by surprise, selling out in two months where we had intended it to carry us through an entire year. It was the most successful wine in our history. Obviously we did something ight, so we patterned the 1998 wine as close as possible to the first version, although no two wines are ever completely alike. The grapes used to make the wine are a blend from our Ten-Point and Buley vineyards. Wine from the Buley vineyard shows the strawberry end of the Zinfandel taste spectrum whereas the Ten Point vineyard has the dark berry rustic earthiness of the central Shenandoah plain. The blend of the two makes broad-shouldered richly fruited satisfying wine. This 1998 wine has a structure that should reward a few years cellaring.