Once & Future "Teldeschi Vineyard Frank's Block" Zinfandel 2022
(Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma, California) - [VM 94]

Note From the Winemaker:

From the Here and Now, the early 1980’s seem like a long time ago!

I was a long-haired bearded young man who found himself having an unexpected luncheon with Frank and Caterina Teldeschi and their sons Dan and John…. Welcoming hosts, they represented the most recent two generations of an Italian family that had been farming their part of Dry Creek Valley since the early 1900’s. The lunch included copious amounts of wine (some made by me, some by Frank) and extraordinarily delicious food cooked by Caterina. I can still remember the menu; stuffed zucchini, homemade pasta with meat sauce made from tomatoes that Catarina grew in the back yard from seeds she brought with her from Italy as a young bride, roast chicken from her chicken yard, and a pork roast with potatoes from a wild pig Frank had caught rooting around the vineyard. To finish the meal, perfect biscotti and delicate rolled anise flavored cookies.

I don’t know whether it was the food, the wine, the people or the amicable mix of all the ingredients that created the magic, but at the end of that lunch, Frank and I had a handshake deal for 4 tons of grapes and as it turns out, a 36 plus year friendship with the family.

Over the years from that small beginning, the wine made from the Frank Teldeschi family grapes grew into one of Ravenswood’s most successful and most awarded single vineyard designated wines.

Located in the heart of Dry Creek Valley on the Eastside bench land, Teldeschi Vineyard is in the best location of a valley that might be one of the best spots for growing Zinfandel in the world. Of course, Frank Teldeschi had his favorite blocks of grapes on the ranch; one of them was a small somewhat mixed block planted in the cobbly Tuscan Red Hill Series soils that Frank claimed was the oldest block on the ranch - that would mean it was planted sometime around 1900. “Frank’s Block” is low production – around a ton and a half per acre – and includes Carignane and Alicante Bouchet in the mix.

When I started Once & Future, it seemed right to honor Frank and my long friendship with the Teldeschi family by making this favored old vineyard block into a stand-alone wine.

Ratings & Reviews

94 Points - Vinous:
The 2022 Zinfandel Teldeschi Vineyard Frank's Block is a complex, dynamic wine. In this tasting, the Teldeschi impresses with its striking energy—a feeling that builds with time in the glass. Dark toned fruit, leather, game, spice, tobacco and menthol are all dialed up. This is fabulous. (Drink between 2026-2034)