Ravenswood

No Wimpy Wines - Ravenswood

Californian Joel Peterson has long wanted to create a wine that could compete with the best European wines. Already with his first "Dry Creek Zin" (vintage 1976) his dream became reality. Right off the bat, this wine took first place at the famous San Francisco Tasting. A veritable Ravenswood cult followed, yet the winery remained the small boutique winery with the typical, mystical raven-circle logo until the late 1980s.

To this day, Ravenswood sets the standard for complex, balanced wines focused on varietal and terroir expression - without any additives. As Joel Peterson explains, 'In the sixties and seventies, the European wines I most admired were made using rather simplistic methods without much influence from technology. That was unusual even at the time. But I wondered why we couldn't also use these Old World methods.' Since then, Ravenswood has been working according to (to some) archaic-seeming winemaking methods.

Teldeschi Zinfandel

The typical Californian grape variety Zinfandel and Ravenswood belong inseparably together. This is largely due to Joel Peterson's preference for wines made from old vines that produce low, but densely concentrated yields. Since the grapes vary from parcel to parcel and thus produce wines of very different character, Peterson created the famous Single Vineyard Series with grandiose qualities such as the Teldeschi Zinfandel

Wines from different vineyards of the same region, skillfully composed, gave rise to the series of County wines, while the Vintner's Blends, wines of their own vineyards combined with those of others, in the Ravenswood quality emerges.