Rockpile Road Vineyard
In addition to the good fortune of assistance from some of the world's best winemakers, Ulises isable to secure fruit from the Rockpile Road Vineyard for his initial release. This is the vineyard for which The Wine Spectator honored Rosenblum Cellars' 2003 vintage as number three of the 2005 Top 100 wines .
Thanks largely to the efforts of Jeff Cohn and Kent Rosenblum, who began a Rockpile Zinfandel program with the vineyard's first vintage in 1996, Rockpile has built a stellar reputation for Zinfandel, gaining it's own AVA (American Viticultural Area) status in 2002, with the help of grower Jack Florence, Sr. The steep narrow ridge traversed by Rockpile Road from Lake Sonoma westward towards the Mendocino County line contains only about one hundred fifty acres of planted vineyards, more than half of which is planted to Zinfandel. Furthermore, much of the Zinfandel from Rockpile is of the same "St. Peters'" clone, brought to Rockpile by Jack Florence, Jr. in 1994, from the tiny century old vineyard in Cloverdale which Ulises continues to farm today. The Rockpile appellation is defined by elevation (800 ft and above) and along with it shallow, rocky soil, has a foothill climate which seems to be custom made for great red wine production.
Rockpile Road Vineyard, at 1200 feet, is owned by Jack Florence, Jr. In 2004, Kent Rosenblum agreed to allow Ulises Valdez to purchase a few tons from one of Ulises' favorite blocks of this vineyard. The 2004 season started out unusally warm, and the early budbreak gave the vines a head start that led to an early harvest. Although sugars of 24 or 25 were reached in early September, harvest was delayed until September 15 to give the fruit a chance to fully mature. At harvest, the sugar was 27.6 brix, TA .56 and pH 3.55.
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