I aim to bring you wines with a provenance (from a unique place).  I am a small-scale artisan wine producer making wines of unique character and personality from a unique vineyard. I like to drink wines with depth of flavor and character with rich ripe smooth texture and think you deserve the same.  I have no desire to drink amalgamated wines blended from characterless locations made to please the lowest common denominator consumer, marketed by large corporations to take advantage of the latest marketing trend or fad.

Tirade Continued

Provenance is having a quality origin or source.  This concept has become very important in our food supply.  I have become much more aware of where of our food comes from.  Menus command higher prices, and I gladly pay, for Kobe beef, Bresse chickens, Niman Ranch meat, Prosciutto di Parma or PEI mussels.  “Sorell Farms Heritage Breed Red Wattle Pork Shanks Braised in 5 Mile Bridge Syrah on Heirloom German Butter Potatoes” appeals to me much more than “Pork Chops and Mashed Potatoes with Gravy.”  Food from a specific quality-oriented place beats corporate industrial homogenized food for flavor, healthfulness and value any day.

This also goes for wine.  Knowing exactly where your wine came from, being able to trace your bottle from the dining table all the way back to the grapevine, assures authenticity of flavor and quality.  5 Mile Bridge believes in bringing you wines with pure unadulterated expression of unique flavors from a unique place. I believe in growing the best grapes possible in the best location possible and nurturing these grapes into wine with as little manipulation as humanly possible.

2006 Zinfandel, Margarita Vineyard, Paso Robles

Zinfandel, the wine unique to California, produces a wine rife with flavor but without the tannic bite that can accompany such a full-bodied wine.  

Our second release of Zinfandel truly expresses Margarita Vineyard and its undulating sloped terrain. At 1,000 feet in elevation, the fog is kept at bay, thus providing plenty of ripening sunshine.

We harvested twice (October 24th and 29th) which gave the grapes a long and temperate growing season. The resulting wine is very deep in color and rich ripe characters without any of the raisined notes common in over-ripe versions of the varietal grown in hotter climates. After harvest and a gentle crushing, the juice was cold-soaked before fermentation, giving the wine a supple texture. A native yeast fermentation extracted the natural character of the superb vineyard site. After a very gentle press, the wine went into 20% new French and American Oak barrels, with the remainder in older more neutral barrels, where the wine stayed for 16 months until bottling.

The resulting 5 Mile Bridge Zinfandel 2006 shows fresh raspberry and blueberry characters with rich, spicy, deep complex flavors and a very long pleasantly lingering finish. This is a wine that can be enjoyed now for its vibrant fruit characters or kept for a few years, but don’t wait too long or you might miss the fun!

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2007 Stinger, Paso Robles Zinfandel

Stinger can refer to what your wallet used to feel after you bought a good bottle of red wine. No longer! This 2007 Stinger Paso Robles Zinfandel is big, rich, deep, full bodied without being harsh - all the things you want from a great $20 zinfandel, but Stinger is under $10!

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2005 Syrah, Margarita Vineyard, Paso Robles

Syrah, a grape whose origin can be traced back to the ancient Persian town of Shiraz (hence the Australian spelling of the same grape), has found many successful homes around the globe including the Rhone River valley in France, many coastal areas of southeast Australia and the Paso Robles area of the Central Coast of California. The grape is wonderful to grow because it is adaptable to many climates and makes wines with different characters from the varying climates.

Syrah grown cold produces a spicy peppery style of wine; grown warm it produces a wine with characters of roasted meat and leather. The best wines come from a combination of the two climates and resulting styles.

The Margarita Vineyard provides this elusive combination of warmth during the day and cooler afternoons, as the breezes from the Pacific make their way through the vineyard, giving the wine both a hint of the spiciness and the rich roasted meat and leather characters.

The Syrah was picked in the late-night hours of October 28th with very desirable small-berry clusters that gave the wine amazing depth of color. The cool growing season gave the wine a solid backbone of acidity, an essential element that adds freshness, intensity and length to the finish of the wine. Our winemaking methods were meant to derive full extraction of all elements in the grape skins during fermentation with regular aeration of the young wine to further enhance the evolution of flavors and supple tannins.

The wine was aged for 20 months in 95% new French oak barrels and 5% older oak barrels to add complexity, length and vanilla notes to the wine. We bottled unfined and unfiltered to preserve every nuance of its wonderfully intense flavors.

The 5 Mile Bridge Syrah 2005 is extremely deep in color with aromas of white pepper and raw bacon and deeply rich flavors of black fruit, roasted meat and leather. This is a wonderful wine with any - you guessed it - roasted red meat. Enjoy!

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2007 "Tatum's Folly" Pinot Noir, Central Coast

This second release of our 5 Mile Bridge Pinot Noir comes from the Tatum's Folly vineyard on the central coast where it is quite cool, but basks in a full days sunshine, giving the wine a silky texture along with bright blackberries and raspberries. The wines shows the classic flavor and structure of pinot noir with the ripe round red and black fruit, a slight hint of earthy mushrooms, anise and orange peel. The long finish and smokiness comes from 100% French oak.

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