TN: 2019 Elyse Zinfandel Morisoli Vineyard Zieger Block (USA, California, Napa Valley, Rutherford)

Did you just have a crappy day at work, after 400+ days at home, using a 12 inch laptop monitor to manage massive spreadsheets, and really want to rip your hair out and scream? Step right up and open a bottle of this! It’s a wild ride that straddles the fluctuating border between ripe Zinfandel and Port. It’s not a shrinking violet. It’s a violet that has been blasted with gamma rays, and gets ticked off if you misplace an apostrophe. Succulent blackberry fruit, graham cracker crumbs, and a drizzle of bourbon caramel are turned into liquid form. I had a bit of blue cheese with it before dinner, and it was a little bit of heaven. I decided to revisit after dinner, and now I want a pipe…and I don’t smoke. Yowza! This is really good, if you are into such things. I guess I am.

Posted from CellarTracker

Title edited to add the block designation.

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I recall really liking the tannins and overall mouthfeel of this wine. I usually don’t care for Zin, but I thought this was very good.

The mouthfeel is like a velvet blanket.

I didn’t think this was even out yet. What was the price?

Sounds like Elyse is on to something with Russel at the helm

I don’t recall the price. Sorry.

Thank you! I might be about to get in trouble. This wine is definitely not released. But, David tried our 2018 Morisoli Zin when we did a preview of the 18 Zins during WB’s quarantine relief. When he reached out again to me, I suggested this for fun. Even the 2018 Morisoli Zinfandel is not released yet. The 2018 Morisoli Zin will release by mailing list this Fall, along with most of the cabs and some other zins.

(If we seem like we are underprepared - well, yeah! When Russell started making Elyse for vintage 2018, the Elyse tasting room was still on vintage 2013. We have had to sit and wait and wait to get to the 2018s. We never talked about it with formality, so I thought we still had a couple more months to prepare, upgrade the website, send announcement emails… pileon Uncharted waters, ahoy.)

The wine David posted about is actually not our “flagship” 2019 Morisoli Zinfandel. This is where it all gets complicated. Basically, my partner Josh and Russell have collaborated for over a decade over several brands and wineries. Josh’s staunch philosophy is that business should not dictate Russell’s winemaking decisions. No minimum quantities each year, etc. So, Russell does what he wants - dissects blocks into small sections, trials farming techniques, ferments in tiny lots, experiments with barrels, makes burnt offerings to ancient gods, etc. After blending we get 1) a core portfolio, and 2) some tiny bottlings because Russell deemed something must exist. P&L be damned! On top of all of that, we R&D 10-15 new vineyards per year. Most never graduate to becoming a portfolio wine.

Back to the Zin. When Russell presented the 2019 Morisoli Zinfandel, he pulled out two blends instead of one, grinned wickedly, and waggled his eyebrows. One blend is our flagship, but what David reviewed above is that second blend: Morisoli “Zieger Block”, a barrel select. Thank you, BTW, David - you made me laugh. “…a violet that has been blasted with gamma rays, and gets ticked off if you misplace an apostrophe” is exactly the experience.

It was a great decision for us, because the 2019 “Zieger Block” is THAT wild and gluttonous. It is also divisive - if our “flagship” 2019 Morisoli Zinfandel bottling was like this barrel select, we would lose some customers, and we would cause some heart attacks. Morisoli is a stunning vineyard, but, like the Rutherford Bench more generally, it’s known for at least a modicum of elegance. There’s a 34 year history with this vineyard we need to do right by.

The good/bad news here is that we thought the “Zieger Block” would get backlash for being so insanely unrestrained. When we first tasted it, we all agreed we would make it even if we were stuck drinking all of it ourselves. It is liquid depravity - meant to be consumed with shame and discretion, perhaps with a napkin draped over our eyes, a la ortolan.

So, with only 70 cases of Zieger bottled last August and COVID shutting down the world, our sales team asked if they could open it for folks they knew enjoy moments of levity. Why not - levity is 100% what 2020 needed. Somehow, we now have under 25 cases left of Zieger despite needing to sell it at $75 to compensate for the way it was produced. What to do with Zieger from there, we don’t know, since there’s no way to predict if a given vintage will justify another barrel selection or what the quantities will be, and “releasing” the final 25 cases of something so divisive is risky - some people would hate it, others would be deeply annoyed we didn’t have enough to offer it fairly. Managing Zieger like a “cult”, highly-allocated wine seems ridiculous, too. It barely exists. It’s a Zinfandel. It was made for fun.


This probably seems so chaotic compared to how professionally tight most Napa portfolios are, but Elyse has a long history of experimental bottlings and not taking itself too seriously. People would visit expecting a few surprises alongside the classics. We’ll learn as we roll into Russell’s wines how to best message and release the stranger things in the right way. But, there’s no doubt a few wines will never exist beyond liminal space (like “my” barrel of Viognier [cheers.gif] )

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This is what I get for not putting on my glasses when I looked at the label. I had forgotten about the Zieger Block designation, and just focused on Morisoli.

Not trying to get you into trouble Cheryl!

And this is really good with blue cheese!!

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Whoops! I didn’t realize that the note was about the 2019 vintage! I had and was referring to the 2018 above, although, I imagine the tannins on the 2019 are wonderful as well [cheers.gif]

Wow, what a story. Fascinating.

On the basis of Bueker’s rantings and ravings, I signed up for Elyse a month or two ago. I haven’t heard anything - maybe the next thing comes along this fall?

This sounds a lot like the Ridge “late harvest” Pagani and the Mayacamas “late picked” (if I remember the designations right) wines of the early 80s. Big whompers but with structure and depth that kept them really interesting. Does that sound about right?

I have loved Morisoli cab for years, looking forward to diving back in with the next Elyse release and the new winemaking!!

I could see that comparison, though I never had the early '80s Pagani in its youth. If I were to start making analogies, it would be if a bottle of Turley had a kid with a bottle of Ridge Geyserville Essence.

We will be releasing the 2018 Napa Cab (and our remnants of 2018 Dry Creek Petite Sirah) as soon as we can finish our website and system upgrade - sometime over the next 30 days. The rest of the 2018 cab/zin will release in fall. It’s taken a lot longer to upgrade than we had predicted, but we also had no clue four months ago that so many people would want the 2018 Napa Cab. The February club shipment had the 18 Napa cab in it, but that’s never resulted in something like our current situation before. And at this point in the year, I need to wait to make sure we have all of our cold chain options available for those who don’t want to wait to receive their Napa Cab in Fall. Not every warehouse has given us guidance/pricing on it yet.


I know the mailing list is quiet right now. We only released the 2017s in March (10 wines or so) and our rose in April, so “trumpeting” the release of just one wine - especially a non-SVD -would make our longtime mailing list clients, some that have been buying for 2-3 decades, think we were being really strange. As soon as all our ducks are in a row re:website, we’ll send out a save the date and I’ll post in the Napa cab thread here.

I hope everyone can forgive us for not being able to turn on a dime. It’s new territory for Elyse, and I wouldn’t have dared to dream we’d be in this situation. In the meantime, happy to answer any questions here. You’re welcome to DM me or e-mail cheryl@elysewinery.com and I can get your order in now, if you’d like. (Same for anyone else!) We de-allocated much of what was slated for wholesale to free up cases for WB / newer clients, so I know what I have to work with before I get in trouble. Thank you!

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What can we be ordering?

Follow up:

I had a glass last night after dinner, and the wine was a little more well-mannered, but still quite exuberant. Still a hulk, but the sun’s getting low.

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The two new wines are 2018 Napa Cab for $55 and 2018 Dry Creek Petite Sirah for $45. We do have a few other wines already released that are made by Russell - 2020 Rose $25, 2019 C’est Si Bon (GSM) $35, 2018 Nero Misto (mixed blacks) $35, 2018 Sonoma Chard $45.

All the other 2018s (Morisoli Cab/Zin, Dry Creek Zin, Mitchell Cab, our estate wine, etc.) will be released in early Fall, which will be a much more organized process since we won’t be in between website upgrades.

I’d be connecting people to Melissa to order by phone for now while we finish up the website and get the napa cab/PS online. She knows the most about where we can ship right now and what the safest options are. Anyone who is on the club waitlist or interested in joining can talk to her about the club to learn more about how it works and pricing. Thank you!

There’s another Elyse-connected Morisoli zin from 2019, sold under the Jacob Franklin label. Jake, as he’s known in the family (and perhaps elsewhere) is the brother of Elyse Coursen, after whom the winery was origiinally named. Jake is my wife’s first cousin-once-removed (his mother, Nancy Cuthbertson, is Laura’s first cousin), and he recently sent us a bottle of his 2019 Morisoli Zin, made from the “Old Block.”

It was much more along the lines of what I would call the traditional Elyse Morisoli zin style. “Only” 14.2% ETOH, very gracious, lot of fun, still quite young (obviously).

We have a long history with the Morisoli vineyard. We used to visit and stay with Nancy and Ray, when they were first married, at the time they lived in the old Morisoli farm house, right amidst all the beautifully-tended Morisoli vines. Have known both Elyse and Jake since they were very young, got to try many Elyse wines from the barrels. Cheryfoil’s comment that “Elyse has a long history of experimental bottlings,” dramatically understates the case! Ray Coursen was a crazy guy when it came to buying up odd lots of grapes from all over, but it resulted in lots of interesting wines. Not necessarily a commercial benefit, but a lot of fun.

A Napa valley Zin? That’s a rare breed these days.

Not quite as rare as you might think.

I did pick up some of the 2018 Cab at 2100 Hofmann Lane. Letting them rest for a bit but excited to try.