2023 Frog's Leap Zinfandel Napa Valley

Zinfandel is quietly disappearing from Napa — ripped out, block by block, for more profitable Cabernet. Frog's Leap refuses to play along.

John Williams founded this Rutherford estate in 1981 and was farming organically and without irrigation decades before either was fashionable.

The Zin comes from the gravel soils of St. Helena — chiefly the White Barn and Molinari vineyards, where the vines average 50 years old. The trick in the cellar: cold-soaked Petite Sirah is blended into the fermenting Zinfandel, cooling the tank and lending tannin and acid — the bones a great Zin needs. Barely any new oak; two-thirds of the wine ages in small concrete cubes to keep the fruit vivid.

2023's long, cool season delivered something rare here: a darker, more structured Zinfandel than usual, with black pepper and dark chocolate over dense fruit. Give it 30–60 minutes in a decanter and it opens beautifully — or lay it down. This is Zin made to prove the grape belongs in Napa.