SMUGGLERS COVE

Since 2014, Jesse and Emma have been on a life long winemaking journey to find exceptionally organically farmed vineyards that play into their goal of making natural wines that speak to sense of place and time.  With over 40 years of organic wine growing and winemaking experience between the two lovers of everything wine, Jesse and Emma had access to a small amount of hillside grown Zinfandel in the Red Hills appellation of Lake County.  While pursuing her biology degree and All-American water polo career at UC San Diego, Emma would travel to Lake County during the summers to work at the Bartlett pear packing sheds alongside her uncle.  Having spent five summers running the pear orchards and vineyards in the early brisk mornings and working along migrant laborers and natives to the area, Emma fell in love with all aspects of operating a ranch.  Eventually it was her uncle that encouraged Emma to work a wine grape harvest, unbeknownst to either of them that it would define the rest of her life.  Coming full circle, nearly 15 years later, Emma returned with Jesse to Lake County to make, SEAWOLF’s 2020 Lady of the Lake Zinfandel; a further step up in quality, without sacrificing any of their traditional winemaking values.  Their commitment to making pure portraits of Zinfandel was recently recognized by Jim Gordon of the Wine Enthusiast. 

94 Seawolf 2020 Lady of the Lake Vineyard Zinfandel (Red Hills). Concentrated,  jammy blackberry and black fig aromas and flavors are especially vivid in this full-bodied, deep and captivating wine. It shows good depth and layering as well as a creamy yet mildly tannic texture that maintains its freshness and charm.

Editors’

Choice. —J.G.