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

[cherylfoil]

Greg - Wow! WB makes it hard to try to migrate our website system without people finding a few holes during the process! Nice find. That site isn’t even fully branded yet, it’s bare bones. It has Elyse, Addax, and some other brands that custom crush at our facility. We found that so many people wanted to mix cases that we needed a new way to make it all work. When all is said and done over here, Elyse, Addax etc. will have their own sites as well as that one to mix cases, all with the same order/fulfillment flow in the back end.

Larry - I haven’t had the 2019 Jacob Franklin Morisoli Zin yet, but you just reminded me I need to order some now that it is out! Jake is working with the oldest block exclusively starting in 2019. The vines shut down too early for Russell’s style, but it is perfect for the winemaking techniques that Jake uses - anyone who enjoys lower ABV or “natural” winemaking should definitely check out his 2018 Grenache as well. It was great news to find out Jake is continuing the legacy. I hope the few family-owned vineyards that still grow some Zinfandel, like Morisoli, will find it’s worth holding onto it because of projects like JF. Jake was part of the cellar crew for Elyse’s 2018s, as well! I loved the history you shared and the note Elyse has always experimented.

Fred - the 2018 Nero Misto (“Mixed Blacks”) is an homage to field blends. It varies year to year in composition. The 2018 is predominantly York Creek Touriga Nacional, Dry Creek Petite Sirah, and some Charbono. It is made by Russell, but it’s Elyse’s $35 “Tuesday Wine” - intense but not fussy, great for an easy night of pasta or pizza. We make everything with the intent it should punch above its weight class, but I wouldn’t go into it expecting it to be some sort of QPR version of Next of Kyn Cumulus. According to our tech sheet, pair Nero Misto with Cool Ranch Doritos.

Gonna say hi to someone from WB visiting the tasting room, then back to the website migration before more bugs are found…

[ClydeUnderwood]

Josh poured me both the 2018 Morisoli zin as well as the 2019 Morisoli Zeiger block zin back in March. The former was fantastic. The latter was definitely Bevan on steroids (I believe 100% new French oak was mentioned). It was really good, but clearly over the top. Now, finally reading this thread I see that there’ll be a “regular” 2019 Morisoli also.

I was only on the mailing list, but I just signed up to be on the club’s wait list. Hope I’m not too late.

[FMansfield]

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

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… 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 )

Cheryl,

I think I can speak for many on this board that we all appreciate your detailed explanations and replies. I cannot wait to try the Elyse Zins.

[MICHAEL_C_R_O_M_W_E_L_L]

I hate Zins, and I mean that with strong passion. Sorry Zin peeps.

I visited Elyse, tasted the Zieger block, and I bought Zins—-the stuff is legit! Hate is such a strong word, but the Zieger was that good! And by the way, I still don’t like Zins, but I can’t wait to pop a Zieger.

[ClydeUnderwood]

I was only on the mailing list, but I just signed up to be on the club’s wait list. Hope I’m not too late.

I was not too late. I got the Elyse club mailer today

[Daniel_Walsh]

I was only on the mailing list, but I just signed up to be on the club’s wait list. Hope I’m not too late.

I was not too late. I got the Elyse club mailer today

That’s good to hear and they’re gonna try their best to get me in with the upcoming club release.

Update -

Grateful that I was added to their Wine Club!

[cherylfoil]

Hello everyone!

We apologize for being a little quiet. Between 2020 fires, COVID, supply chain shortages (don’t even get me started on what a pain bottling was), and upgrading our website, it took us a looong time to be certain we were all good to go. I had to go into quiet mode otherwise I would have crumbled. ( OK, I kind of did crumble. ) Hopefully anyone that e-mailed myself or Melissa has heard back from us, but if we missed anyone please let me know so I can fix it!

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1. We have organized our inventory and our long time club members orders, so now I’m able to process through waitlists. If you DMed me here and didn’t here back, I promise I am about to do that. (Wow, that is a LOT of DMs. ) I am sending waitlist invites in waves, so if you haven’t received anything and are worried, just email me at cheryl@elysewinery.com. For people fresh off of the waitlist, we are not auto-processing your order. You will have plenty of time to ask questions, pick what you want, etc. It is the least we can do after the wait.

My deepest apologies to the people who needed more communication from us on the waitlist process. I know it was frustrating to not hear either way, and we are working on the right way to message. In general, we’ll have the most clarity on who can be added to the waitlist right when club batch runs, and then we will have the chance to add new members over the following month.

2. The wine club is NOT the only way to get our wine, but we do make a few wines that tend to be wine club exclusive. We try our best to keep flagship wines available for both club and mailing list. Mainstays like Morisoli cab, Napa cab, Mitchell, Dry Creek Zin, etc. are available via mailing list release. We DO occasionally make special blends and Elyse throwbacks (like L’ingenue, a Rhone white) that are club exclusives. It’s not that we don’t want to share the wines with more people, it’s just that so many of our productions are 4-8 barrels. We don’t want to scale anything unless we can keep the quality and soul of the wine the same, and we don’t want Russell to ever feel like he needs to make more of a wine if the smaller barrel select is better quality.

3. On our 2018 mailing list release, with all the delays outside of our control, we combined Napa Cab & the 2018s into one release. The start date for that is September 21st. We are sending the “Save the date” next week to our mailing list, so if you have joined our list, look out for that e-mail. (There is a chance we have to buffer the emails across a few days so we can manage our site and phones, and we will make sure you know the exact date to expect via e-mail.)

The best way to sign up for the club waitlist or the 2018 release is using the website so we can keep our ducks in a row, but our amazing fulfillment manager, Melissa ( melissa@elysewinery.com ) is here for you if you have any questions or need assistance in any way!

Thank you all so much. Time for my DMs!

[mowen]

Elyse wine shipment arrived today - looking forward to opening one of the cabs and/or the proprietary after they settle

[OwenB]

We’ve opened an 18 Napa cab as well as an 18 Morisoli zin. The cab was very good and balanced, and I thought not as full throttle as some of the other Bevan wines I’ve had (mostly a few different vintages of Ontogeny, which we really like). The zin was a 12 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of oaky intensity. We love big (and young) Napa wines but I was surprised by this one. Will give my other bottle of zin a few years to see if it comes together.

[David_Bu3ker]

We’ve opened an 18 Napa cab as well as an 18 Morisoli zin. The cab was very good and balanced, and I thought not as full throttle as some of the other Bevan wines I’ve had (mostly a few different vintages of Ontogeny, which we really like). The zin was a 12 on a scale of 1-10 in terms of oaky intensity. We love big (and young) Napa wines but I was surprised by this one. Will give my other bottle of zin a few years to see if it comes together.

Russel seems to make rather…umm…intense zins. So far I have really enjoyed them with a cheese course, almost like Port.