2018 Graziano Coro Mendocino

Background
Coro Mendocino is a collaborative effort started by eight Mendocino winemakers
in 2001 to create a class of distinctive wines that showcase the rich heritage and
unique characteristics of Mendocino County. This is the first time in U.S. history
that vintners have set blending and aging parameters for wines distinctive to a
region (i.e. like the appellation controllee wines of Europe). Each winery created
its own individual blend based on the protocols and each blend is reviewed by a
panel of winemakers in four blind tastings before the wine is accepted as Coro
Mendocino. All of the fruit must be exclusively from Mendocino County with a
requirement that Zinfandel be at least 40% of the blend. Each winery personalizes
the common label, which will be recognizable as Coro Mendocino, and bottles the
wine in a uniform bottle. Coro comes from the Latin meaning “from many into
one”
Winemaking
The grapes for this wine were hand harvested and were crushed into open top
fermentors and allowed to cold soak for an average of 3 days before the start of
fermentation. After a long, slow fermentation, the wine was aged for 24 months
in 50% new French Burgundy, American, and Eastern European oak, softening
the tannins and adding length and complexity to the wine.
Winemaking Data
Fermentation & Aging
Fermentation: 4 days of cold soak,
pumped over and punched down
twice a day for 11-17 days in
stainless open top fermentors
Aging: 24 months in French,
American, EU Burgundy barrels
(50% new French)
Wine
Blend: 56% Zinfandel, 22% Petite
Sirah, 11% Carignane, 11% Barbera
Alcohol: 14.6%
Total Acidity: 7.1 g/L
pH: 3.32
Residual Sugar: 0.5 g/L