The Grapes:
Blend: 50% Zinfandel, 17% Petite Sirah, 17% Carignane, 16% Barbera

The Appellation:
Mendocino, California

The History: 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.”

The Wine: 
Our Coro Mendocino is a unique blend of old vine Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, and classic Italian grape varieties Barbera, and Carignane, which have come together to create a wine that has great structure and elegance. Aromas of violets, spices, and cedar weave through the full-bodied, complex mouth-feel, culminating in a rich harmonious finish laced with great acidity, raspberry, vanilla, earth and toasty oak. The wine’s complexity and depth of flavor will continue to evolve with further bottle aging.

The 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. Fermentation: 4 days of cold soak, pumped over and punched down twice a day for 11-17 days in stainless open top fermentor. Aging: 24 months in French, American, EU Burgundy barrels (50% new French).

Alcohol: 14.8%
Total Acidity: 7.4 g/L
pH: 3.35
Residual Sugar: 0.5 g/L

Pairs With:
Roasted meats such as lamb and beef or hearty venison stew bring out the true flavors of this wine.

The Winemaker:
E-Corp has worked with Greg Graziano for nearly 2 decades, and Greg is a winemaker you never forget. From his endless supply of Hawaiian shirts to his contagious passion for wine, excessive neutral-oak ageing, and doing things the right way even if its the hard way, Greg has always been a favorite of ours. When we want to show someone a well-made wine, we show any wine that says “Graziano” on it.

The Graziano Family has a long line of winemakers and grape growers dating back to the early 1900’s.  Like his family before him, Greg Graziano, now carries on the family winemaking tradition that his grandfather set the foundation for and that his father Joseph later handed down to Gregory. To this day he is still carrying on the family tradition…as is his oldest daughter, Alexandra Graziano, a UC Davis graduate of Viticulture and Enology. She is currently involved in all aspects of winemaking and is the 4th generation, from Piedmonte of Italy to Mendocino County.

◉ The Graziano Family of Wines Website
◉ Other Wines from this producer at E-Corp