History
Charlie Volpi planted the vineyard in 1920, months before Prohibition. Dr. Bill Dickerson bought it in 1971 and the family has held it since, resisting sustained pressure to pull the Zinfandel and replant to Cabernet Sauvignon. It is the last old-vine Zinfandel left on the lane that took its name from the variety. Robert Biale and Turley both bottle it, and Joel Peterson bought the fruit for Ravenswood before them. Dickerson himself had backed Joe Heitz financially in the making of the Martha's Vineyard Cabernet, a wine that carries the same eucalyptus signature.
The Site
Twenty-one acres lying flat at 140 feet on the west side of the valley floor along West Zinfandel Lane, near the base of the Mayacamas. Ten to eleven acres are under vine. The mountains shade the rows in the early evening, dropping temperatures sooner than the valley average and holding pH low for the variety. Soils are well-drained Bale loam and gravelly alluvial silt.
Vines and Blocks
Three age blocks. The 1920 north field, head-trained on St. George and filled in around 1930, sits directly under the eucalyptus windbreak and gives the most aromatic, lowest-pH fruit; it is the source of the designated bottlings. A 1979 middle block and a 1985 south block follow, both trellised, both progressively less marked by the trees.
The Wines
Dickerson Zinfandel is translucent and high-acid rather than jammy, with crushed mint and bay leaf over raspberry and white pepper.