Wine of the week: St. Francis, 2019 Old Vine Zinfandel, Sonoma County

Katie Madigan’s favorite book is “Postmodern Winemaking” by Clark Smith.

“I still refer back to it all the time,” said the winemaker at Santa Rosa’s St. Francis Winery. “It feeds my desire to be creative in winemaking and always gets me thinking out of the box to try new things.”

Madigan is behind our wine of the week winner — the St. Francis, 2019 Old Vine Zinfandel, Sonoma County, 14.8%, $22. With layered notes of high-toned raspberry, cherry and cranberry, this zin has a lively tap dance of spice. It has soft tannins and a supple texture. With gorgeous aromas and generous fruit, this zin over-delivers for its price.

Maintaining a high quality and affordable price keeps this bottling on the forefront of mainstream zinfandels, Madigan said.

“Listening to consumers as I travel on the road for St. Francis allows us to be confident that what we’re putting out there is what they want and enjoy,” she said.

She’s aiming for a house style that’s fruit-forward with an undercurrent of spice, she added.

“I think that push-pull combination of fruit and spice is one of the reasons our Sonoma County Old Vines Zinfandel is so versatile.”

But getting that tension right requires patience, she said.

“Zinfandel is notorious for ripening unevenly, both the berries on the cluster as well as the clusters on the vine,” she said. “To make great zinfandel, you have to look at many different components and wait until they are harmonious. In 2019 we had afew summer heat spikes, and it was a waiting game for all the pieces of the ripeness puzzle to fall into place.”

At 41, Madigan is celebrating her 20th year at St. Francis, where she oversees the winery’s zinfandel, chardonnay and pinot noir programs. She worked as a lab technician at St. Francis before being promoted to assistant winemaker.

“I’m still learning and tweaking my technique,” Madigan said. “I never want to settle for today’s best. I like the mentality that the best is yet to come, and I look critically at every vintage for future improvements I can make.”

Madigan graduated in 2005 with a degree from UC Davis in enology and viticulture. A 2002 internship at St. Francis ignited her passion for the entire breadth of winemaking, from the vineyard to the cellar.

“I started here at age 21, working harvest, and loved the fast pace,” she said. “It was as an intern that I was able to really build the connection between what I had learned in the classroom to what I was experiencing out in the field and in the cellar. ... I was hooked from that moment on.”

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5310.