Retro Cellars G&R Zinfandel 2022
We have 11 in stock (Inventory is live and accurate)
Summer Shipping Advisory: Orders may be temporarily held during periods of extreme heat to ensure wine arrives in optimal condition.
View current shipping weather map →
The Land
Chiles Valley is in Napa County but it does not behave like Napa. The appellation sits in the Vaca Mountains northeast of Rutherford and St. Helena, rates as a Region II climate, and runs substantially cooler than most of the valley thanks to elevation, persistent northwest winds and fog that arrives late rather than early. Bud break comes after the valley floor, spring frost is a real and recurring threat, and harvest finishes weeks behind the famous Cabernet addresses one ridge west. That lag matters for the G and R bottling, since G and R is Green and Red Vineyard, dry-farmed on hillside soils of decomposed chert, red volcanic rock and green serpentine between 900 and 1,800 feet. Zinfandel here ripens slowly enough to keep acid, which is unusual for a grape that normally races to sugar and raisins.
The Wine
Zinfandel from the Chiles Valley District, dry-farmed hillside fruit, minimal intervention in the cellar. 2022 is the vintage Napa growers describe as two harvests in one. An early-September heat spike put five consecutive days of triple-digit temperatures on the vines, rain arrived immediately after and shut picking down, and then a mild October handed the patient their ripeness back. Chiles Valley's later cycle meant the heat landed mid-ripening rather than at the finish, and the cooler elevation and wind kept the sugars from running away. The result is a darker, firmer, more compact wine than the drought-concentrated 2021: black raspberry and bramble, dried herb and black pepper, a stony volcanic edge, and tannin that grips harder on the finish. Give it a year or two more in bottle than you would give the 2021.
The People
Retro Cellars was founded in 2003 by Mike and Kara Dunn, both of whom grew up inside Napa's 1970s farming generation. Mike's family founded Dunn Vineyards on Howell Mountain in 1978, Kara's family founded Pecota Winery in Calistoga the same year. Their first wine was a 2003 Petite Sirah. Production has stayed under 500 cases a vintage. Their son Alex joined in 2022 as estate farmer and brought sheep grazing and carbon sequestration planning with him, and Ted Kizor, UC Davis trained with harvests abroad, came on as assistant winemaker in 2020. The Zinfandel comes from Green and Red, founded in Chiles Canyon in 1977 by Jay Heminway and run today by his family.
Food Pairing
The firmer tannin in the 2022 wants braising liquid and dark spice. Beef cheeks cooked down in stock with ancho, cumin and a little orange peel meet the bramble fruit and the pepper at once. A pot of rigatoni with a fennel-sausage ragu, built on tomato and finished with pecorino, uses the acid the site keeps. Grilled hanger steak with chimichurri sharp with garlic and red wine vinegar cuts straight through the grip. For the end of the night, a sharp aged cheddar and a handful of toasted walnuts. This is the bottle for the Sunday you spend all afternoon with something in the oven.
We ship wine to most states with a $100 minimum order for shipping. We don't ship spirits nor beer.
Weather shipping advisory: Orders placed during times of extreme heat or extreme cold will be held for no charge until more favorable weather returns.
Zinfandel, a red grape variety with a somewhat mysterious past, is most closely associated with California, where it has become a flagship grape. Genetically equivalent to Italy's Primitivo and Croatia's Crljenak Kaštelanski (and Tribidrag), Zinfandel's journey to California likely occurred in the mid-19th century. The grape thrives in California's warm climate, producing wines that range from sweet rosés (often labeled "White Zinfandel") to bold, full-bodied reds with flavors of blackberry, raspberry, and peach yogurt, often accompanied by higher alcohol levels. Zinfandel's ability to reflect its terroir, along with its versatility in winemaking, has made it a beloved and iconic grape in the American wine landscape.
