Little Trouble Wine Co Stampede Red Blend 2020

Field blend of Zinfandel, Mission, Alicante Bouschet, Syrah, Grenache, Petite Sirah. Jen & Sara first met back in 2016 while working for a Sonoma Coast winemaker and grower. Jen was the assistant winemaker, Sara was the sales director. After getting to know each other over bottles shared at Casino Bar and Grill in Bodega, they quickly realized their mutual love of bright, fresh wines, low intervention vineyard practices, fluffy dogs, and eventually each other. Jen’s family took in Sara, an east coast transplant, and many a holiday was shared together. While joking for years about starting a label together, dreams became reality in 2020 when they finally decided to go all in. This red blend showcases well-known and little-known grapes and puts them into something greater than the parts by themselves. Currently owned by the Perlegos family, it was love at first sight for Jen & Sara and the Stampede Vineyard in Lodi next door to the Clements Buckaroos rodeo grounds. These are own-rooted vines that were planted in 1940 (magical stuff!), with the majority of the vineyard being Zinfandel and a whole variety of grapes rounding out the rest of the vineyard. Everything is de-stemmed, fermented with wild yeasts, aged in neutral, and then unfiltered, unfined, and minimal sulfur at bottling. Filled with perfect fine-grained tannins and an energetic line of acidity that comes from the site, this red has that gorgeous California fruit profile, but it’s balanced out by the structure. Jen & Sara don’t call their wine “natural” and they will let you call it what you want, but at the end of the day these wines are absolutely delicious and it simply amazes us this is only the first vintage of their wines. Big things to come here!