Rust Wine Co.
A new rendition of Rustico Farm & Cellars, this quirky boutique winery includes a 12-acre vineyard called South Rock, the most southerly in the Golden Mile Bench sub-appellation. It changed hands in 2016 when Vancouver businessman Sonny Haung’s Pure West Properties took over Mt. Boucherie, silent owner of Rustico.
The winery is home to an 1890s silver miner’s bunkhouse with a massive sod roof transported log by log from Beaverdell to the Golden Mile site by then owner John Tokios in 1964. Among the grapes he planted on the rock-riddled, east facing slope are Gewurtztraminer in 1963, Merlot in 1995 and three acres of Zinfandel in 2002.
In the bright, newly-minted tasting room, Rust’s general manager Jesse Harnden described the unique
challenges associated with growing Zinfandel. “In some ways, it’s a nightmare,” he says. “Most important goal for us is to reach phenolic ripeness, not the highest brix,” he says. “With those ginormous clusters and harvesting by October 31, we drop more fruit than we leave on the vine and do cluster and berry sorting both in the vineyard and winery, leaving yield at only 2½ tons per acre. The style of our Zinfandel leans to smooth and easy going with red fruits and nice spice notes unlike big, jammy California Zin with huge alcohol and big, brambly fruit.”
In the case of Rust’s 2014 Golden Mile Bench Old Vines Zinfandel, think big and bold. A no holds barred Zinfandel, it boasts an abundance of deeply concentrated, dried black cherry, blackberry and prune fruit, complex smoke, charcoal, hot pepper and violet nuances, and a rich, chewy texture.