"Our Live Oak Zinfandel is named for Live Oak Road in Oakley California. The vineyards run adjacent to this road and consistently produce some of our most complex, concentrated and unique lots of Zinfandel. Cline Cellars has chosen to dry-farm the ancient, head-pruned vines, continuing a practice employed by the Italian and Portuguese immigrants that planted this vineyard well before the turn of the century. Phylloxera resistant sandy soils and the singular Oakley terroir characterized by hot sun and a unique band of cooling air that flows from the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers produce stunning, concentrated Zinfandels for which Oakley is known.
Grapes were harvested at high natural sugar levels and treated gently in the cellar to emphasize the explosive fruit characteristic of the block. The fruit was almost entirely de-stemmed and lightly crushed, with a large proportion of whole berries remaining in the must. Fermentation occurred at moderate temperatures in stainless steel tanks."